


do not stand at my grave and weep

by the_crownless_queen



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Fix-It, Gen, Genderfluid Loki, Heimdall lives, Lady Loki, Loki Does What He Wants, Thor is a good brother and you can fight me on that, everybody lives because fuck canon, hand-wavey rules about magic, he's not the only one, loki lives, mostly he wants to kill Thanos, this is very self-indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 14:37:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 24,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16955856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_crownless_queen/pseuds/the_crownless_queen
Summary: Thanos is here. It’s time to see how good of a liar Loki can really be.-- Or in which Loki fakes his death, and the space stone, and the future changes.





	1. I did not die

**Author's Note:**

> So I watched the trailer for Endgame and all my feels came rushing back in. I already had a fix-it idea but that one involved time travel, so it's gonna be very long, and I wanted to try something a little bit shorter first, since I've never really written for Marvel before...  
> Feel free to let me know what you thought! Next chapter should be up... soonish. Hopefully.

The instant Loki sees Thanos’s ship appear is the moment he realizes that he has run out of time.

“We need to evacuate,” he says out loud, turning urgent eyes on his brother.

Thor frowns. He looks concerned, but not worried. Not yet. Norns bless him, but he doesn’t understand. Loki wishes he would never have to, but that’s a childish whim he should know better than to have.

“Loki, what’s —”

“Not now,” Loki interrupts. “I swear I’ll explain everything later—” _if we’re still alive_ “—but right now we need to evacuate. _Please.”_

Loki hates begging, hates the sour taste it leaves in his mouth. Thor knows this.

(How odd is it, that his brother _knows_ him now?)

“Alright.” Thor nods regally. The gesture looks to have aged him a thousand years, but Loki doesn’t have time to spare for the unwanted guilt he feels trying to take root in his stomach.

“Alright,” Loki repeats, but his mind is already elsewhere.

He doesn’t watch as Thor leaves.

This is his fault. Coming back here was stupid, bringing the Tesseract with him was a folly. He should have just run.

Bitter, Loki laughs. _Sentiment._ Looks like it’ll be the end of him after all.

Except… Except he doesn’t want to die — he doesn’t want to give up this weird, hard-fought peace he’s got with his brother and what’s left of Asgard.

_That’s new,_ he thinks, a little bemused, and then his mind starts racing.

Loki’s always done his best — and worst — scheming under pressure. He rather thinks Thanos being on their literal doorstep qualifies.

So, what does he know?

Thanos is here. He wants the space stone, will stop at nothing to get it. Odds are… Odds are, Loki will have to give it to him. He could bargain for their lives, of course, but…

(Thor’s eyes, staring right past him. “I thought the world of you.” Thor, always Thor, and Loki’s pathetic need to have his brother think well of him again, to prove him wrong.)

No, there will be no bargaining here.

What can he do, then? What can he use?

Tricks. Tricks and illusions, and an infinity stone he doesn’t really know how to use.

There could be worse odds.

_(Time to play his best trick yet.)_

* * *

 

The stone doesn’t take kindly to his tricks. The cube fights back in Loki’s hands, its power burning against his skin, but Loki forges on. He almost feels like laughing — to think he would care for something so inconsequential as pain when the only lives he cares about hang in the balance.

He is acutely aware that their precious seconds are ticking by, that this could all be a waste of time if Thanos sees through his disguises, but… what other choice do they have?

At last, the Tesseract breaks open. The stone inside floats above his hands, suspended in the air by his seidr, and Loki starts to siphon energy off of it. His heart pounds in his chest as he pours it into a clear crystal — Loki’s loath to admit that storing energy that way has never been  his forte.

The stone’s power is a heady thing, but Loki has no time to get lost in it. He pours as much of it into the simulacrum as he dares to, watching the clear crystal turn blue with a frenzied heart.

He hears screams, growing closer, and knows he is out of time.

Recreating the Tesseract around his fake is easy after that, and Loki spares a handful of seconds to stare at his creation. It looks and feels as the real one had, but will that be enough to fool Thanos?

Back in the corner of Loki's mind, darkness stirs. Loki pushes it back with gritted teeth.

This is no time for doubt.

The screams grow closer still, and then die down. Loki closes his eyes for one mournful moment — he hopes some Asgardians managed to get away, because this silence can only mean one thing.

Thanos is here.

And it’s time to see how good of a liar Loki can really be.

* * *

 

In all fairness, Loki would prefer never having to hand over the Tesseract, fake or not.

In a perfect world, maybe he doesn’t have to. Maybe the beast is strong enough to defeat Thanos, to let them escape and live on another day. Maybe in that world, Loki’s brave enough — or insane enough — to use the space stone’s power directly.

In this world, however, their assault fails. Thanos beats back the beast, laughing like this is _fun,_ like this is _easy,_ and Loki can tell they will lose.

In a way, they already have — so many of their people have died for this. Their corpses litter the floor, and while Loki knows they only stayed to let others escape, this doesn’t make their sacrifice any less senseless, or any less Loki’s own fault.

(They were supposed to have been _saved._ He was supposed to have _saved_ them — and yet, so many of them still died.)

There is a second, before Thanos finally defeats the beast, where Loki can act. He meets Heimdall’s golden eyes, and his heart twists. It isn’t right, for Heimdall to have been brought so low. It isn’t right for him to die for Loki’s mistakes.

The healing arts are not Loki’s strongest suit, but he can still do something. It’s not much — more illusionary magics, really, meant to convince Thanos’s children that Heimdall’s wounds are worse than they are, that the man is already dying in the hopes that he’ll be ignored then — but it might just be enough. It’s all Loki can do, anyway.

Loki thinks he can see gratitude flash through Heimdall’s eyes.

_Sentiment._

He doesn’t get to dwell on it — Thanos grows tired of the beast’s play, and just like that, the indomitable Hulk is beaten. Defeated.

He would have died too, if not for Heimdall’s timely intervention. The Hulk is whisked away on rainbow lights — no doubt to Midgard. It’s a gift, really, and Loki’s fingers twitch as an idea crosses his mind.

In retaliation, Thanos drives a sword through Heimdall’s chest, and Heimdall stills. Loki’s seidr, still wound tight around the man, quivers — but it does not die. To his surprise, Loki thinks he might actually be relieved at that, for all that Heimdall does appear dead.

Loki’s very careful to disguise the way his hands shake as Maw bends down to pick the discarded Tesseract, before presenting it to Thanos, who crumbles it in his fist to reveal the stone.

Loki’s heart has never beat faster. He almost believes Thanos will see right through the lie, that Thanos will simply know Loki tried to trick him, but…

The Titan doesn’t. He inserts the stone in his glove and smiles like he’s won when this — _this_ — is the first step toward his defeat.

And now for the second.

Loki swallows, takes a deep breath, and steps forward. This isn’t the first time he’s faked his death — though none of the others were quite as planned  — but hopefully, it will be the last.

* * *

 

Even with all his planning, Loki’s illusions almost slip right through his fingers at the most crucial moments.

He almost fails, almost truly dies, suffocating under the Titan’s fingers.

Almost.

Letting Thanos believe he’d snapped his neck is almost laughably easy, in the end — and Loki would laugh if it didn’t show how little the Titan truly thinks of him.

All it takes is the right sound, really, and Loki knows this one well. Loki lets his body go limp, dulling his heartbeat until only he can hear it, and Thanos discards him with nary a thought.

Ignoring the way Thor sobs over his body proves to be more difficult than planned. Every part of him yearns to reach back to tell him _I’m here,_ but he can’t.

Loki consoles himself with the thought that this time, Thor’s grief over him will be very temporary — he’ll reveal himself when Thanos leaves.

Loki doesn’t anticipate Thanos destroying the ship behind him, though.

He barely has the time to reach out, to tag his brother with his seidr so Loki can _find him_ _again_ before the last of the ship finally crumbles.

Thor and him are torn apart, and they’re sucked out into the cold, unforgiving vacuum of space.


	2. when you awaken in the morning's hush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> waking up, new alliances, and pieces coming together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was such a pain to write omg. I love Thor and Heimdall so much but they didn't want themselves to be written, dear god. I should have known my muse's had a good reason for her refusal to write Thor's pov :p
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy this! It's a bit more filler-y than initially planned, but my brain apparently wanted to explore the Guardians a bit more, so... this happened. I probably went a bit AU-ish with Mantis's abilities, but it worked better this way :p
> 
> I'm not going to be writing much of what happens on Earth because it will happen as it did in the movie. If it doesn't, it'll be written :p
> 
> Enjoy! And don't hesitate to let me know what you think! :)

Mantis  _ feels _ the destruction before she sees it. It’s not the first time this happens — the Guardians are well-practiced in rescue operations by now, even if they’re not always the most efficient at it — but this is different.

This time, Mantis can tell that there won’t be much to rescue. There is too much pain in the air, too much suffering lingering for there to be.

She opens her mouth to warn the team, but it’s too late already. They’re here, only  _ here _ is…

Here is…

The shock and horror she feels from the team, even without touching them, added to her own dread, have her at a loss for words.

There are outside, floating in the empty vacuum of space, and bodies. They all just stay there, staring, until one of them crash into the cockpit, like a giant fly spread over their window.

Rocket’s screams at Quill to get it off — for anyone to do it, really — are cut short when the dead man  _ moves. _ His eye open, seemingly staring right at them, and this time, Rocket isn’t the only one to scream.

It takes them less than a second to gather their bearings.

Quill, Drax, and Rocket spring into motion, donning on their spacesuits to go outside and bring him in. 

Gamora lingers behind, though, hovering around Mantis, her discomfort so tightly restrained anybody else would miss it.

“Do you think you could find out if anybody else survived?” Gamora asks her steadily, eyes fixating on the desolate sight outside the ship. From where they are, they can no longer see the rest of the team, but they can see the wreckage, and the bodies.

Mantis licks her lips. The perspective of shifting through the miasma of pain and sorrow that still lingers in the area is almost enough to make her sick, but if she can find at least one more person alive… That would make it more than worth it.

Dimly, she nods. “I can try,” she says.

Gamora leaves, taking her atmosphere of determined kindness with her. Mantis misses it already, especially in light of what she’s about to do.

She moves to stand in the cockpit, as close as she can get to the empty space before them, and she reaches out.

Mantis isn’t sure this will work. She’s never tried reaching out this far — she’s never had to — but the only other idea that comes to her is going outside and checking every body one by one and… she doesn’t really want to do that.

She will if she has to, but she hopes she doesn’t.

She’s never tried to find life before, but she’s been in contact with enough living beings before that she knows what to look for. Life has a spark to it, a unique kind of energy she could never mistake for anything else, and that is what she looks for.

It would be easier if she could just  _ touch _ the bodies, but there are so many, Mantis wouldn’t know where to start. This is harder, but also, simpler, in a way. Space doesn’t have much room for life, especially here, and that helps too.

“Here,” she hears herself say, pointing at a distant shape, floating almost out of their line of sight. 

Gamora follows her finger, nodding, and taps the com to tell the others they have to make a detour. There’s some grumbling, but Mantis doesn’t pay it any thought, mind too strained looking for other signs of life.

For an instant, she thinks she can feel something, but it slips through her mental fingers like jelly and blinks out of her radar. She tries one last sweep, but it seems she’s hit her limit, and she shakes her head.

“Only two?” Gamora sighs grimly. Her voice is low enough that Mantis isn’t sure she was meant to hear those words, but she still nods.

“Only two,” she replies solemnly.

“Well, that’s still better than none. Hopefully, they’ll be able to tell us what happened here.” Gamora sighs again, before leaving to rejoin the rest of the team outside the ship. Mantis remains inside, with Groot, and she does her best to direct them toward that second survivor.

Finally, though, they manage to heave both men aboard the Benatar, and boy, if they had thought the first one was in bad shape, the second one — a dark-haired, dark-skinned man — is in even worse condition and has to be taken to the med bay.

(Well, what serves as a med bay on the ship, anyway.)

Still, he somehow seems to be surviving a stab wound to the chest, but bandages can’t hurt.

The man stay unconscious through all this, and eventually, they decide they should let him rest. His companion’s condition seemed much less life-threatening, after all, and they do need answers.

They all wander back to the center of the ship, where the first survivor lays unmoving.

“How is this dude even alive?” Quill asks incredulously. It is clear that this question has been on his mind for a while now — and Mantis knows why (she doesn’t need to read him to know he’s thinking about Yondu and how space had killed him when here, two people survived the same fate), but she chooses to ignore the following bickering between Quill and Drax as she rests her hands on the man’s temples.

The intensity of his emotions takes her breath away, just a little, and her heart aches for his pain. 

“He is anxious, angry,” Mantis conveys to the others. “He feels tremendous loss and guilt.”

More quill muscle thing

“Wake him up,” Quill orders, and Mantis nods, swallowing anxiously.

“Wake,” she whispers, seeking out the twist in the man’s emotions that will bring him out of his slumber. 

Mantis barely gets the time to move back as the stranger violently springs up and away, panting heavily. 

He takes a few unsteady steps before he stops and turns to them. “Who the hell are you guys?” he asks with a rough voice.

There is a beat of complete silence, before Quill steps forward.

“We’re the Guardians of the Galaxy.” 

* * *

 

Thor isn’t sure how or why he ended up here, on this ship.

(No, that’s a lie — he knows why. Loki… Loki traded in the Tesseract for his life, and…)

_ (Bones snap and Thor’s heart breaks — again. He is so tired of losing the people he loves.) _

He is grateful for it, though. Or rather, he will be, whenever he can think past the feelings storming in his mind.

The green woman — Gamora — hands him a bowl of bland soup and a blanket. He pulls around his shoulders as he flatly reports what happened aboard the Statesman; how they were unarmed and didn’t expect an attack, and how Thanos came after them anyway. It doesn’t help with his shivers, but it gives his hands something to hold.

By the time he gets to the space stone, the Guardians are looking suitably grim.

Gamora nods, her jaw set at a sharp angle. “The entire time I knew Thanos, he only had one goal,” she explains. “To bring balance to the universe by wiping out half of all life.”

Thor pauses, spoon halfway to his mouth. “That’s ridiculous.”

Gamora huffs, her lips quirking up into a bitter smirk. “Well, try telling him that.”

“Thanos is insane,” Quill interrupts. “That’s like, fact numero uno.”

“Yes,” Gamora replies, annoyed, “but that is only part of what makes him so dangerous. Thanos believes he is right, that is plan is just and justified, and so he will not allow himself to fail. No matter the cost.”

“My people…” Thor falls silent, unsure — or perhaps simply unable — to finish his thought. His fingers tighten around his spoon, and he forces himself to swallow more of this tasteless food.

He almost misses the look the rabbit and Quill exchange.

“Right, about that…” The rabbit clears his throat, scratching his head. “We found one of your buddies floating out there,” he says. Hope rises in Thor’s throat, treacherous and bright, before Rocket’s next words squash it.

(He should have known better.)

“Tall guy, black skin? He was in pretty bad shape, but he seems to be doing okay. Somehow,” Rocket grumbles, clearly peeved at the why.

“Heimdall,” Thor breathes. It has to be him. “Take me to him.” He sets the bowl down and stands up — his legs shake, but he does not let it show.

The others share an alarmed look, but before they can say anything, Gamora nods sharply. “This way.”

He follows her gratefully.

The med bay really is barely fit to be called that, but the figure resting there is unmistakable. Thor’s eye burns, and he hates himself for the half-second where he still hoped it would be somebody else.

“Heimdall,” he says, heart clenching in his chest. “How is this possible?”

“We were hoping you could tell us,” Quill replies, his voice unnaturally stern. Thor arches an unimpressed eyebrow his way, but otherwise shakes his head. Heimdall lives, somehow. This is no time to worry over such petty grievances as whatever trouble Quill is trying to stir up.

“The last I saw of him, Thanos drove a sword through his chest. I thought him dead,” Thor replies. His eyes fall to his friend’s chest, where the swath of white bandages cut a stark figure against his dark skin.

“Loki,” he hears himself say, and he knows it to be true as soon as the word leaves his lips. His brother’s seidr still lingers around Heimdall’s wounds, and Thor’s lips quirk up into a humorless smile as he presses his eyes shut.

_ Oh, brother, what were you thinking? _

“I thought his name was Heimdall,” he hears Quill whisper, though the words devolve into a sharp cry of pain and a call of “Rocket!” that speaks of mischief.

“His name is Heimdall,” Thor replies, even though he knows the question was not for his ears. “Loki is — Loki was my brother. He was most skilled at seidr, and I believe he used it to ensure Heimdall lived through this.” At the Guardians’ uncomprehending look, he sighs and uses the word the people of Midgard use. “Magic. He used magic.”

Rocket scoffs, clearly unconvinced — or perhaps simply disgruntled Thor’s explanation involves something he didn’t know. 

“We’re, err, sorry for your loss,” Quill says, his serious demeanor not quite so forced this time.

Thor nods back, thankful. His attention drifts to Heimdall again.

“Is it… normal for him not to wake?”

Quill shrugs. “No idea. Honestly, we don’t really know a lot about what’s normal for —” He waves a hand erratically over Heimdall and Thor. “No offense, but space does tend to kill most races out there.”

“Aesirs are not most races,” Thor replies, though he doesn’t take as much pride in the fact as he once did. It is hard to, knowing what he knows now. “We are gods.”

“Right. Gods. Of course.” Quill clears his throat while the rest of his team seems to echo his sentiment behind him. “Well, anyway, we can… wake him, if you think it’s fine. Or Mantis can.”

Thor looks at the unassuming woman Quill gestures to. She steps closer to the makeshift bed, standing on Heimdall’s other side.

“Lady Mantis, if you could wake my friend, I would be most obliged.”

“Of course,” Mantis replies, her voice soft. “But perhaps… You should hold him down. You woke up quite suddenly,” she explains, and Thor grimaces as he remembers those horrifyingly confusing seconds where he hadn’t been able to tell where he was.

“Yes,” Thor agrees. “I wouldn’t want to aggravate his wounds.”

Mantis nods again, an odd toothy smile playing on her lips before she rests her hands on Heimdall’s temples. She inhales sharply as her antennae light up, and the next thing Thor knows, Heimdall’s eyes snap open and Thor has to hold him down while Mantis just barely gets out of the way in time.

“We are among friends,” Thor hastens to explain, repeating it until he is sure Heimdall can understand him. It is strange, seeing Heimdall so shaken when Thor has always known him to be steady, but he guesses that if there ever was a time for it, it would be now.

“My king,” Heimdall finally replies, laying back down on the bed. His hands drift up to his chest, and he winces as he presses on the bandages. He takes in the eclectic group they’ve found themselves with in stride, offering them a thankful nod they return with bewildered enthusiasm, and for the first time since Thanos came, Thor feels like smiling — and so he does. He doesn’t know when he’ll next get the chance.

“Heimdall, my friend, it is good to see you well.”

“I don’t know about ‘well’, but I still live,” Heimdall replies grimly. Thor’s heart twists painfully as Heimdall confirms his thoughts, telling him Loki is responsible for this small miracle.

Thor’s lips quirk up into a wry smile, and he lets out a bark of humorless laughter as grief tears at the unhealed gaps in his heart. “That sounds like him,” is all he manages to say before falling silent.

Heimdall hums back in agreement.

“Ask me for what you want to know,” Heimdall says when the silence starts to stretch uncomfortably. 

“No.” Thor shakes his head. “You're wounded still, I can’t ask you to—” 

“You are my king, and I am Asgard’s Gatekeeper,” Heimdall replies, his voice steady but stern. “It is your duty to ask me to look, as it is mine to do so.” He smiles kindly. “Do not worry, I know my own limits. I am strong enough for this.” Heimdall sends him a pointed look as he straightens up on his bed. 

Thor's jaw sets unhappily. “Alright.” He sighs. “What of our people?”

Heimdall’s eyes glaze over as he focuses his gaze elsewhere. “Some have escaped. The Valkyrie is with them.” 

Thor exhales a sigh of relief, glad that that plan had worked.

“They’re aiming for Midgard,” Heimdall continues, and Thor nods, his throat tight.

He almost doesn’t want to ask the next question, but… He needs to know — both for Asgard and for himself.

“And… Loki ?” he sounds like he's choking around the name, but he can’t help it.

Heimdall’s eyes turn distant again. He shakes his head, regretful. “I cannot see him.”

Thor swallows past the lump in his throat. It’s nothing he wasn’t expecting, but it still hurts. He clasps Heimdall on the shoulder, forcing a cheerful smile on his lips. “Thank you, Heimdall. You should rest now.”

“Your brother has hidden from my sight before,” Heimdall cautions, but Thor shakes his head.

“I know, but I can’t help but feel things are different this time. I… I don’t think he will be coming back.”

Heimdall merely nods at that. He falls silent, and Thor returns his attention to the companions he’s been ignoring.

They all look away the instant his eye crosses theirs, pretending they weren’t listening in. They’re terrible at it, especially since their actions are so very much understandable given the circumstances, but the effort is ridiculous enough to bring a brief smile to Thor’s lips.

“Well, this is all very touching and all, but… Thanos. What do we do about that guy?” Quill asks, standing tall in front of his team, puffing his chest. His voice is different from earlier too, and Thor frowns, bemused, as he realizes what’s happening.

“Are you copying me?” A side look toward Heimdall confirms this impression, the Gatekeeper’s eyes shining with quiet mirth.

I believe he is,” Heimdall replies solemnly, and Quill starts sputtering protests — even as most of his team starts ganging up on him.

It’s a heart-warming sight, really, and Thor joins in the teasing easily.

The Lady Gamora is right, however, to bring a stop to it. Thanos is the more urgent matter now. With two infinity stones at his disposal already, he is sure to make a move for the others.

“Two of the stones are on Midgard — Earth,” Thor corrects at the Guardians’ confused looks. “Thanos already sent his… children there, and as nobody knows where the soul stone is, it is fair to assume he is going after the reality stone on Knowhere.”

“Then we’ll go to Knowhere,” Gamora replies with a curt nod. “If we can get to the Collector before he does, we can stop him from getting that stone.” Her eyes sharpen. “What will  _ you _ do?” she asks.

Thor’s fingers jerk, and he has to force his hand to open. Centuries with Mjolnir by his side are a hard habit to get past — and for this battle, he will need a weapon.

“I will be going to Nidavellir,” he says.

“That’s — Nidavellir isn’t real,” Rocket sputters, but Thor can read the interest in his eyes.

“It is,” Thor confirms. His eye falls to Heimdall, but his friend shakes his head.

“I cannot—” Heimdall starts, and halts when Thor rests a hand on his arm.

“Rest, my friend,” he repeats. “You’ve done enough already. I will be taking the pod, we can fly there.”

Quill’s eyes go wide almost immediately, and he follows after Thor as Thor reluctantly walks out of the medbay, grabbing a handful of supplies and heading for the pod he’d spotted earlier.

“Hey,” Quill protests, “this is my ship.” He turns to his crew. “Isn’t it my ship? Shouldn’t we at least have a, a vote or something? Raise your hand if you’re for sticking together and sticking it to Thanos?” Quill raises his hand, and groans when he’s the only one.

Rocket pushes past him, grabbing Groot and bouncing up to Thor and the pod. He shuffles inside under the claim of wanting to ignore his friends’ quasi-suicidal mission, and Thor doesn’t dare tell him that their odds aren’t much better.

He welcomes the sweet rabbit’s company. After all, without him, Thor would be alone with his thoughts — and right now, they are very dark indeed.

“Let’s go,” he says, and Rocket salutes his friends as they leave.

* * *

 

Just as they disembark from Quill’s ship and ready themselves to make the jump to Nidavellir — which is apparently real, who knew — Rocket spies a flash of… something, inside the ship, right behind his band of morons.

His heart lurches in his chest with concern he’ll never admit to, but it was just a flash of light, just a trick of his worried mind — nothing, in truth, to be worried about.

(And if it is? The team can handle it.) 

Thor’s reaction is far more concerning, however. He jumps in his seat, startled badly enough to throw them entirely off course, and his face goes white.

He looks like he’s seen a ghost.

“What is it?” Rocket asks, eyeing his companion dubiously. Just because the man is apparently a god, and taking him to Nidavellir, doesn’t mean he isn’t insane — probably with grief, justifiably, from his story, but well… Rocket’s not ruling anything else out yet.

He tries to look at Groot to ask his opinion, but Groot, of course, simply carries on playing his game. Rocket sighs.

“Nothing,” Thor replies, the grin on his face clearly faked. “‘Twas nothing.”

“Uh-huh,” Rocket says dryly. “Because  _ that _ was one hell of a ‘nothing’.”

Thor heaves a sigh, his eyes — eye? — full of sorrow as he looks toward the ship they’ve just left. “I thought… Nevermind.” His grin turns even more fake. It’s painful to look at, so Rocket looks away.

He hears Thor take a deep, steadying breath, and pretends he can’t hear how grateful Thor is when he next sets their course for Nidavellir.

It is a quiet, awkward trip, and Rocket spends it unable not to wonder about what it was that Thor thought he’d seen.

Or rather, the far likelier  _ who. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> according to Wikia, the ship is the Benatar now, not the Milano. Who knew?


	3. of quiet birds in circled flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki’s salvation comes from the fact that at least, he’s not falling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops sorry for vanishing like this, I just hit a major case of writer's block... And fell back into DC fanfic. But I'm back and intent on finishing this. Hopefully soon.
> 
> Enjoy!

Loki’s salvation comes from the fact that at least, he’s not falling. He’s drifting, yes, lost in the empty see of space, surrounded by bodies and destroyed bits of machinery. He can’t breathe, can’t speak — but he’s not falling. He can focus, can push past the horror of floating among his people’s corpses and try to feel for the tracking spell he left on Thor.

Still, it takes Loki far longer than he’s comfortable with to gather the seidr he needs to get out of there. Idly, he wishes he could have kept the space stone — even now, distant as it is, its power calls to him — but no, it was wiser to let it go. 

Finally —  _ finally _ — he feels the sharp  _ twinge _ that tells him Thor is safe. Well, as safe as he’s likely to be, anyway. There is no way to know where Thor’s drifting led him, but Loki trusts that his brother will manage to charm whoever rescued him appropriately.

Oddly, the thought doesn’t frustrate him as much as it once did.

Those few moments of distraction cost him, though. When he casts his spell, green sparks around his hands, weak and useless, and Loki’s lips twist into a snarl. 

_ No, _ he thinks, desperation and panic clawing at his mind as he frantically works to gather his seidr again before his body fails him — not even gods can survive space forever.  _ I will not die here. I did not come all this way to die here. _

Furious, he swings his seidr out again, the spell’s shape so familiar he could do it in his sleep. This time, he feels it catch, and the world washes away in green light.

Dimly, he registers surprised screams at his undoubtedly unexpected apparition. Objects clutter to the ground, dislodged by aimless flailing and while usually, Loki would relish in the mischief, but now, all he can do is focus on that sweet, sweet oxygen finally filling his starved lungs.

He hears voices and instinctively throws his hands up in what he knows whoever saw him arrive will take as a “look at me I’m harmless” gesture rather than the true defensive pose it is.

With his palms open like this, Loki could summon his knives at a moment’s notice, and while it rankles to show weakness (doubly so considering his… circumstances), right now, he sadly does need whatever allies his brother managed to find (for there is no doubt they are allies, this is  _ Thor) _ to trust him.

He hears more than he sees them circling him, their weapons drawn out, before one of them finally speaks.

“Who are you?”

Hiding a smirk, Loki raises his head. “Loki,” he says, and offers his hand to the grey-skinned man who spoke.

“Wait, Loki, brother of Thor?” interrupts another man, reaching for his ear. He touches something, and the mask that had been spread over his face retracts, leaving his bewildered expression clear for all to see. “Aren’t you like, dead?” He turns to his compatriots. “Isn’t he supposed to be dead?”

Loki clicks his tongue in frustration, exhaling sharply and holding back an eyeroll.

“I see you’ve met my brother.”

“And Heimdall,” a weirdly insect-like woman adds, her grin slightly too wide to be proper. “I’m Mantis. Hi.”

“Where is he?”

“Err, he left.” “In the medbay.”

Panic flares in his chest before Loki realizes that this Mantis woman probably had been speaking about Heimdall, rather than his brother.

Of course, since this means that Thor’s just left for who knew where, frustration replaced it quickly.

“Where did he go?”

At this, the man’s eyes narrow and he crosses his arms. “Wait, how do we know we can trust you? How do we even know you are who you say you are?”

Loki grits his teeth. “We do not have time for this.”

He sees their point, though, and while he doesn’t doubt that were he at his best, he would be able to take them easily, and learn what he needs, Loki is man enough to realize he is not currently at his best.

Losing this fight is something he cannot afford right now, and so he forces himself to swallow back to itch to start a fight — he truly has been spending too much time with Thor lately — and displays his bare palms again.

“You said Heimdall was here? He will vouch for me.”

Well, Loki could hope so anyway. And hey, Loki has literally just saved his life — Heimdall owes him this.

And for once, Loki is actually trying to help too.

 

* * *

 

Heimdall’s first words when Loki crosses into the Guardians’ makeshift medbay are, “Your brother thinks you’re dead.”

Loki sits by his side, replacing the one he was told is Gamora, daughter of Thanos. She works against him now, though, and Loki guesses that this is what matters most. They don’t really have time to make it matter.

He smirks wryly, tuning out the Guardians catching up their last member to Loki joining them. “It’s not exactly the first time.” He shrugs. “He should be used to it.”

Heimdall just hums back noncommittally, and though he’s lying down on a bed and covered in bandages, it doesn’t take long before Loki starts to shift uncomfortably under that golden gaze.

It’s a habit he’d thought he was rid of, but apparently not.

Loki huffs. “I would tell him if I could, but it’s not like I can just send him a raven, and I don’t think you’re exactly up to sending him any kind of sign either.”

Heimdall nods. “That I am in any way able to be ‘up’ to anything is thanks to you, my Prince. But you are right, I fear Thor is currently beyond my reach.”

“But he is safe?” The words fall from his lips before he can hold them back, and Loki curses himself for the sentimentality when he sees Heimdall’s lips curl into a smile.

“As safe as any of us can be,” Heimdall replies after a beat.

Loki exhales a sigh of relief. He pats Heimdall on the shoulder, and stands up. “Good. That’s good.”

He turns toward Quill, scowling. “Satisfied now?”

Quill nods sheepishly. “Sorry, but we just had to be sure. Can’t be too careful, you know?”

To his distaste, Loki does know, and he grimaces. “Yes, quite. Anyhow, can you now tell me where my brother went?”

To Loki’s growing frustration, Quill takes the time to exchange a questioning look with his companion before answering. 

(Loki hates this — he can feel time slipping through his fingers, can picture Thor drifting further and further away, until he’s out of Loki’s spell’s reach. Soon, Loki won’t be able to sense him at all, and the seidr will unravel.)

“He went to that Ni-something place,” Quill finally replies. “Nirvalir?”

Loki’s eyebrow arches up his forehead. “Nidavellir?”

“Yes! That’s the one!” Drax shouts. “That’s where they went.”

“Why on Asgard would he —” Loki mutters, his eyes going wide. “Oh, now that’s almost clever. He went to —”

“Get a new weapon, yes,” Heimdall finishes, nodding.

And for the first time since Thanos’s ship appeared, Loki feels something like hope bloom in his chest.

He smiles. “That could work. That could really work.”

“No need to sound so surprised,” Quill grumbles, but Loki ignores him.

If Thor gets his hands on a weapon mighty enough to kill Thanos… Loki has no doubt that in his brother’s hands, it will find its mark.

Of course, there is still the matter of the stones.

Which brings him back to the Guardians.

Loki turns on his heels until he’s facing them again.

“I assume we’re here to stop Thanos from getting the Reality stone then?” he smirks when Quill sputters back at him.

“How on Earth could you even know that?”

This time, Loki doesn’t hide his eyeroll as he starts to pace. “That’s easy. Thanos has got the Space and Power stones, Time and Mind are on Midgard — your Earth — where he sent his children, and nobody knows where the Soul stone is.” 

Gamora flinches at that. It’s almost imperceptible, but Loki’s eyes catch it anyway. He pretends not to notice, but Gamora sees him looking. There is panic and dread in her eyes, but more than that, there is determination. Loki can appreciate that — he inclines his head in respect, just minutely, and after a beat, Gamora nods back.

They understand each other.

Their exchange lasted less than a handful of seconds, and Loki turns his focus back to Quill, smile saccharine. “Ergo, the only stone Thanos can be going after is the Reality stone.”

“Impressive,” Drax states. Beside him, Mantis nods vigorously and shows him a thumbs up that almost has Loki’s lips quirking up into a smile.

Quill clears his throat, earning himself an annoyed look from Gamora. “Anyway, I bet you don’t know where it is.”

Loki lets his smirk widen. “It’s on Knowhere. Under the care of the Collector. I assume that’s where we’re going, then?” He addresses Gamora this time, since she seems the more reasonable of the team.

Gamora nods back. “Yes. We set the course when your brother left, we’re set to arrive shortly.”

The Guardians start drifting out of the room at that, but Loki lingers.

He waits until he and Heimdall are alone to speak again.

“Don’t tell him about me. If we don’t succeed... Don’t tell him.”  _ It would be kinder in case we fail,  _ Loki doesn’t say, and he has to pause at that — when did he start concerning himself with  _ kindness? _

There is no need to say who the ‘he’ is, they both know there’s only one person Loki could be talking about. “I see,” Heimdall replies, nodding like he can see right through Loki’s attempts at disguising his thoughts.

Heimdall’s eyes have always seen more than Loki was comfortable with.

“I will not tell him,” Heimdall continues, “but should he ask again, I will not lie.”

Loki shrugs. “Do what you will.”

Heimdall tilts his head to the side. “Would it be so bad, letting people know you care?”

Hands twitching at his side, Loki swallows past his suddenly dry throat.

He leaves the room without saying another word.


	4. I am the swift uplifting rush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Knowhere is too quiet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this, another update? Miracles do exist...
> 
> I took some liberties with the dialogues and canon things here because I didn't want this to feel too much like rehashing canon.

Knowhere is too quiet. That’s the first sign Peter gets that something is wrong. Of course, he probably should have expected it; they’re going after Thanos, after all, and if there’s one thing being around Gamora has taught him, it’s that her father is a monster.

God, but he can’t even begin to imagine what that must have been like, getting raised by him. Oh, he’s seen the consequences of it, of course — the badassery, of course, but also all the trauma Gamora isn’t hiding as well as she thinks she is.

Maybe that’s why the Guardians fit so well together — they’re all equally damaged.

… Yeah, who is he kidding, it’s definitely the damage.

His attention drifts away from Knowhere — he’s seen it all before, though never this quiet — and back to Gamora. Her profile is solemn as she gazes out into space, and Peter loves her so much it hurts, and he has to force his eyes away lest her voice start echoing through his mind again.

_ I want you to promise me you won’t let Thanos get me. That you will do whatever is necessary. _

_ Promise me, Peter. If it comes down to it, you have to promise you’ll kill me. _

Shaking those thoughts away — it won’t come to that, it just won’t — Peter chooses to focus on their new… companion? He’s honestly not sure what they should be calling Loki. He’s not exactly part of the team, but then again, he’s also not exactly  _ not _ part of it either.

Loki looks… antsy. Peter had half-expected him to stay with Heimdall — which is really at least half the reason why the team had vacated the makeshift medbay so quickly after Loki had proven moderately trustworthy — but he hadn’t. Instead, Loki had left almost as quickly as they had, and he had looked… rattled.

He had masked it quickly, though, but he can’t quite mask his nervousness as they fly to Knowhere. Between them and Drax and Mantis, Peter’s actually eager to get off the ship — even if they’re probably just going to their deaths.

They park the ship as quietly and discreetly as they can, and Peter turns to face his team.

“Remember, stealth is of the essence here,” he cautions.

They nod — Loki just scoffs, another reason why  _ he’s _ definitely not on the team — but Peter is only approximately thirty-nine percent hopeful they’ll stick to the plan.

Sadly, for this team, it’s actually quite a high percentage.

Peter gestures at them to move forward before the team decides to go off on their own, and so they start to creep forward to the Collector’s place.

It becomes quickly apparent that Knowhere isn’t just oddly silent, it is  _ deserted. _ There is not a living soul to be seen or heard, but unfortunately, even that isn’t reassuring.

Peter remembers the kind of things the Power stone is capable of, and he knows — he  _ knows _ — that there would be no bodies to be found if Thanos doesn’t want there to be.

“We need to hurry,” Gamora says, voicing Peter’s very thoughts, and Peter nods even as he hastens his pace.

As he’d feared, Thanos is already there when they reach the Collector. However, Thanos doesn’t seem to have the stone yet. The Collector is resisting Thanos’s interrogation/torture, and the violent flash of relief that floods Peter’s system is enough to make him reconsider every bad thing he’s ever said or thought about the man.

They’re not too late.

And of course, that’s where everything goes wrong. Loki vanishes in a flare of green fire — which, what? did he teleport? turn invisible? that would have been nice to know  _ before this _ — and Peter tries to gesture at the team to stay low and search for the stone.

The Collector trying to tell Thanos he sold would have been more believable coming from literally anyone else in the galaxy, but it’s still a nice attempt, and it buys them time.

Or it would have, anyway, if Drax had chosen to charge in, prompting Mantis to knock him out. The sound his body makes when it drops to the floor echoes loudly, and Peter could swear he feels his heart stop.

They don’t get the chance to regroup before Gamora flings herself at Thanos with a snarl.

Peter knows better than to get in her way, but surely there is something he can do to help her — except that there isn’t.

Peter watches in bewilderment as Gamora rallies after Thanos destroys her sword, using the fragments of Godslayer to kill her father.

And of course, this is when everything goes wrong after all. The world is washed in red as reality peels away, revealing Thanos alive and well, his gauntlet now adorned with three of the infinity stones.

“Daughter,” he says, his voice unfairly calm, like they’re all insects beneath him, “we have something to discuss.”

Gamora only snarls as she flings herself at him again, but this time, Thanos is read for her.

This time, Gamora doesn’t win.

They’re all useless, really. Drax and Mantis are incapacitated almost immediately, Loki’s still nowhere to be seen, and Peter…

Well, Peter can’t even keep his promise. All he can do is watch as Thanos takes Gamora away, vanishing through a shimmering blue portal.

_ “GAMORA!!” _ The scream tears itself from his throat like it’s a knife, and it’s only Loki’s hand on his arm that manages to stop him from hurling himself after her.

He spins around, snarling, ready to tear that uncaring asshole who thinks he can show up once the battle is done a new one because that was  _ Gamora, _ and Peter loves her and he  _ failed _ her.

He feels like he can’t breathe. Gamora had one request, one single request and Peter failed her.

So yeah, he’s angry — seething, really. And he can’t take it out on Drax or Mantis because he saw what the stone did to them, but Loki is unarmed, had vanished out of the fight before it even started like a  _ coward, _ and now he’s just  _ standing there, keeping Peter from going after Gamora. _

Only he knows the eyes he stares into, and they’re not Loki’s. His rage dies down, strangled in its ashes, and his knees go weak. Only the hold on his arm keeps him from crumbling down.

“How?” He chokes out, staring uncomprehendingly as Loki’s pale skin fades to a familiar green, his features easing out until Peter’s staring at Gamora’s face. “You were…” He can’t even say it.

“That wasn’t me,” Gamora replies. Her skin is paler than usual though, and she keeps sneaking glances toward the place her double had just vanished, carted away by Thanos.

“Come,” Gamora continues, addressing not only him but Drax and Mantis too, who’ve just finished putting themselves back together. “We shouldn’t linger here.”  _ In case he comes back, _ she doesn’t say, but they all here it all the same.

It doesn’t take much more than that to get them to reconvene on the ship. 

They find Heimdall stoically staring out of the cockpit, contemplating the destruction around them with an imperturbable face.

It is, honestly, kind of creepy, and Peter is actually kind of glad to let Drax handle the “Loki sacrificed himself for us. Though cowardly at first, he behaved with honor in the end.” part of the discussion.

“He’s not dead,” Gamora interrupts, the first words she’s really said since they’d left the Collector’s. Peter itches to go to her side, but she waves him away.

There is a flash of relief through Heimdall’s eyes —  _ finally, emotion! _ — as his shoulders unwind. “Then I assume he had a plan?”

Gamora nods. “He did, though he didn’t share it with me.”

Heimdall’s lips quirk up in amusement. “He seldom does.”

Finally, Gamora’s words catch up with him. “Wait, wait, wait,” Peter says, “what do you mean he’s not dead?”

“Yes, I would like to know as well,” Drax interjects, crossing his arms and frowning. “He went with Thanos, didn’t he?”

To Peter’s surprise, it’s not Gamora who answers, but Mantis. “He was afraid,” she says. “Afraid, but determined. And Thanos thought he had won, that he was Gamora.”

Gamora nods, a gesture echoed by Drax and Heimdall. “He knew we couldn’t let Thanos get me,” she says, though she doesn’t elaborate on why.

“Right, but aren’t we forgetting one thing?” Peter hears himself say, and he has to take a step back when everyone’s attention is suddenly focused on him.

“Hey, easy now. I’m just saying… Yeah, Loki fooled Thanos into thinking he was Gamora and they left — yay! But aren’t we forgetting that… he doesn’t actually  _ know _ whatever  _ you’re _ supposed to know?” he says, nodding toward Gamora.

“He had a plan. Surely he must have accounted for this,” Gamora replies, but Peter knows her well enough that he can tell she’s wavering.

He turns to the others. “You see where I’m going with this?” he says, and shakes his head when Drax only replies, “But you’re not moving.”

(One day. One day they’ll manage to get Drax to actually not react to a metaphor.)

Mantis whispers something to him and Drax nods vigorously. “Oh, you want to go after him!”

“Yes!”

Drax nods again. “I agree. Thanos escaped me again, but not this time! This time, he shall feel my might!”

“Yeah, that’s not really what I was going for…” On second thought, though, Peter does want to kill that giant purple bastard too … “Yeah, whatever, let’s kill Thanos.”

Mantis’s antennas light up as she thinks, but she ends up nodding too. “We don’t leave anyone behind. That’s what the Guardians do.”

Peter almost expects Gamora to disagree — she only narrowly escaped Thanos’s grasp this once, who’s to say they’ll be as lucky a second time — but she nods too. “I have a debt to repay,” is all she says about it.

Heimdall stays silent for a long instant when they turn to him, before he finally states, “This wouldn’t be the first time Loki’s schemes worked against him.”

Peter pauses, perplexed. He stares back at his teammates, who shrug back. “I’m confused. Was that a yes? I’ll take it as a yes.”

Heimdall merely inclines his head. “Yes. However, in my current state, I do not believe I would be of much use to you.”

Ah, right. How easily Peter forgets that he was floating through space when they found him. He’s racking his brain for something the man might do that isn’t just ‘sit around the medbay’ when his eyes catch on the pilot’s seat.

He smiles. “Do you know how to fly?”

“Of course.” Heimdall looks almost offended that Peter even thinks to ask.

“Great! Then let’s go after Loki. And Thanos,” he tacks on when Drax starts to glower. “You can fly the ship when we go in after them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have the scene with the Gamora&Loki swap, but I couldn't make it work in this flashback. Would you guys prefer it to be an interlude between this chapter and the next, or to have me post it as like, a separate drabble and start a series for this?


	5. interlude - I am not there

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "We don't have time for this," Loki says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, interlude it is. That was fun to write :p

**Fifteen minutes ago**

Gamora is used to high-stakes combat. She’d grown up that way, and if the stakes had started out as simply their father’s love — or what she had thought was love at the time, naïve child that she was — they had quickly moved on to… Well, different things.

Looking back on it, it wasn’t much of a childhood, but it did teach her how to fight — how to  _ kill. _

Her father taught her to be deadly, and Gamora fully intends to use those skills on him.

And she does. 

But it doesn’t feel as good as she’d imagined. And oh, she’d imagined it so many, many times. She’d never cried then, though. Had never realized that killing the monster wouldn’t really save the little girl she had been.

She’s so caught up in her grief and relief that she almost misses  _ his _ voice. She doesn’t, though. That voice is as familiar to her as her own, and her mind recoils at the sound of it.

She had thought she would never hear it again, and she had been glad for it.

Gamora should have known better than to think her father could ever go down so easily.

She tightens her hold on her knife, and she’s about to go after Thanos again when a flare of green catches her vision, and the next instant, Loki is standing beside her, crouching. She very deliberately doesn’t startle, but her heart starts racing even faster.

“Where were you?” she hisses through his teeth, but Loki merely shakes his head.

“We don’t have time for this,” he says, and then, right before her eyes, he… changes. There really is no other way to describe it, and certainly no sign that it was happening. It’s not like before, when Gamora caught sight of green when he appeared, or even the red mist that dissolves the reality Thanos created, it just  _ is. _

One moment Loki stands beside her, and the next, Gamora’s staring at her own reflection. Only it’s not a reflection. It’s real.

_ “What —?” _

Loki shoots her an annoyed look. “You know something he wants. Considering Thanos’s goal, you shouldn’t go near him. But he won’t be expecting me.” He — she? — grins and pushes her away before Gamora can protest.

And then Gamora’s frozen in place, her skin as pale as Loki’s had been. Something tells her that were she to look at her face, it wouldn’t be  _ hers _ staring back. 

Ignoring her shock, Loki plucks the knife from her fingers and she growls at him as he springs himself toward Thanos.

An illusion lingers at her side as Gamora strains against invisible bonds, spitting out, “This is madness!”

“Don’t be so foolish,” Loki retorts, clicking his tongue against his teeth. “If you rush in now, all you will do is lose.  _ This” _ he gestures at their situation “is your best chance.” When Gamora only growls harder, he sighs exasperatedly and adds, “It’s the  _ universe’s _ best chance.”

… And as much as she is loathe to admit it, Loki’s right. Coming here, putting herself in Thanos’s path like this, was foolish enough — though she doesn’t dare imagine what Thanos would have done to the team if he had found them and she hadn’t been there.

Gamora simply can’t allow Thanos to learn where the Soul stone is, and Loki’s plan is their best bet.

She sags into her bounds.

“He’ll kill you for this,” Gamora pleads, because even if it’s the  _ best  _ option, it doesn’t mean this is a good one. 

The illusion smirks mirthlessly. “He can try. It didn’t take last time.”

The fight forges on, and Gamora has to watch as Thanos cuts down her team. Her heart hates Loki for this, she thinks, for not letting her go to their head, even though her mind knows that that would ruin everything.

“They’ll be fine,” Loki tells her, and Gamora doesn’t know why, but she believes him. It doesn’t make watching any easier, of course, but it helps — so does swearing revenge on her father, imagining all the ways she will kill him for this.

From the steal glint in Loki’s eyes, he understands only too well.

“They can’t see us, can they?”

“No,” Loki nods. “Nor hear us, really.”

“How?” Gamora asks, intrigued despite herself (anything is better than watching what used to be Mantis and Drax laying on the ground, their bodies unrecognizable). “Thanos has the Reality stone.”

“Ah, but he’s not looking for us now, is he?” At Gamora’s annoyed look, he huffs. “Simply put, I’m hiding us from his perception. Thanos won’t find us because he doesn’t know to look for us — and because he’s not using the stone consistently. Even with it — especially with it — he assumes that what he sees is what is real. It’s a common mistake. People rarely pay know to look for illusions.”

Frustration sparks in her gut. “And you can’t use those to kill him?”

Loki scowls, suddenly disgruntled. “I would if I could. But to attack him would make him notice us, which would render my illusions useless, and then…”

“And then he’d find me,” Gamora finishes, hating the bitter taste those words bring to her mouth.

“Precisely.”

She falls silent at that, watching as Thanos lets Peter confront him, as Peter struggles to keep the promise she begged of him.

He actually does, in the end, but it’s not enough. Gamora has to look away from him; it feels like her heart is trying to rise up her throat.

She looks at her copy instead, despite how odd that still is.

“That was… inspired,” Gamora finds herself saying as her copy tries to plunge the knife into her own chest. It dissolves under the Reality stone’s power, of course, but Gamora appreciates the attempt. Disturbingly, it is even something she would have done.

“Thank you,” Loki replies, a smug smirk on his lips. “I do try.”

The illusion standing by her side vanishes with one last smirk when Thanos tugs the fake Gamora through his portal — and really, that is the weirdest part, how easily fooled by this Thanos has been, how much he believes that the person he took actually is Gamora.

The magic that bound her is the next to vanish, followed by whatever spell Loki had been using to keep them out of sight. When Gamora looks down, though, her skin is still Loki’s, but she has no doubt that will not last much longer.

It lasts just enough for her to catch up to Peter, actually.


	6. I am the diamond glints on snow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kinda love Lady Loki/genderfluid!Loki so... I just had to include it here. (Don't hesitate to let me know if I missed a pronoun at some point though)  
> Also Loki&Nebula would make the best team and I'm forever mad at canon for this missed opportunity :p

It’s been a long time since Loki had last thought of herself as one, and even longer since she had  _ been _ a woman. Decades at the very least, if not centuries. Walking around wearing Gamora’s skin isn’t quite like shifting into her own female form, but it is close enough for Loki to realize how much she has missed it.

Looking back, that is probably the only reason her little masquerade lasts as long as it does. Even a god (or goddess, currently) of Lies can be caught in one, after all, and Thanos chose the one scenario where Loki can’t escape with that lie intact.

Oh, she could prolong it, for sure. Lead Thanos on a merry chase for the Soul Stone he thinks she knows the location of — and what a truly auspicious shift this has been, that Loki allowed the one person who truly knows where to find the stone to escape — but it would never last.

Not that it was ever intended to, but… Loki would still have appreciated getting more time.

Her eyes drift back to Nebula, whose disassembled body is still floating there, held up like a bug under a microscope. Loki feels… something akin to pity for her — she knows what horrors she has done, yes, but more than that, she also knows the true horror that is working for Thanos.

More than pity, though, she cannot leave her there. This is a trap, one destined for Gamora, and if Loki wants the universe to keep on existing, then she must spring it, or it’ll ensnare its true target eventually.

Besides, Thanos knows his children. He knows that there is no way Gamora would stand by her sister’s torture — and because of this, neither can Loki.

It is truly frustrating, and Loki would curse them for it except that she would do — has done, in fact — the same thing for Thor.

Sentiment. And to say that people try to tell her it’s a  _ good _ thing.

Loki doesn’t have much time now before Thanos catches on, but she will make what little time of her charade remains count. This is as good a chance to kill Thanos as she’ll ever get — her odds are already better than they were on the Statesman, after all.

Her eyes glance toward Nebula, seething in her suspended state.

Well, she decides, it can’t hurt to stack those odds in her favor a little more, can it?

Loki slowly inches her way toward the console controlling whatever holds Nebula as Thanos speaks, offering her Nebula’s freedom against the location of the Soul stone. 

Turning the force fields down discreetly is easy — child’s play, really. Pretending to listen to Thanos as she does is harder, but Loki’s had years of practice listening to all-powerful types.

Loki’s not self-centered enough to think that Thanos doesn’t notice her actions, but her appearance conceals the scale of them. He doesn’t appear to care for what she does as long as she promises him the stone — good. Let him underestimate her again. Loki always does her best work when her opponent doesn’t know to be wary of her.

Which is ridiculous, considering Thanos thinks she’s Gamora — from what Loki’s seen of the Zehoberei, Gamora’s more than deadly — but Loki will take it.

And she’ll take the ally Thanos so kindly handed her too.

 

* * *

 

There is something wrong with her sister. Or perhaps ‘wrong’ is not quite the right term… But there is something undeniably  _ different _ about Gamora. 

Nebula doesn’t claim to know her sister’s every thought by any mean, but she does know her sister, and whoever that imposter is, they are not her.

Oh, they’re good. Great, even. They’ve definitely fooled Thanos (though  _ why _ anyone would ever even try is a mystery), but they can’t fool her.

Gamora’s eyes have never looked so disdainful when they looked at her. Nebula had seen them frustrated, angry and, as disgusting as the thought was, full of love, but she had never, not even once, seen them so empty of caring.

So she knows that this can’t be her sister, and whoever that imposter is, she will make them pay dearly if anything happened to the real Gamora.

(She ignores the possibility that perhaps Gamora finally stopped caring, stopped loving her — that somehow Nebula had pushed her too far. 

It doesn't bear thinking about.)

She doesn’t know when the force fields pulling her apart get turned off, but she  _ feels _ it. Her limbs whir and hum as they adjust back into place, and Nebula would cry for relief if she still could cry.

Unfortunately, the gesture doesn’t go unnoticed for very long.

Thanos sighs, the sound so full of paternal disappointment that Nebula flinches back on instinct.

“Daughter, I expected better of you,” he says. For an instant, Nebula thinks he’s talking to her, but no, he’s talking to Gamora — well, the person impersonating Gamora.

It’s almost funny, really, how easily he dismisses her in favor of her sister. Even now, even after she’s tried to kill him, he still thinks of Gamora first and foremost.

Nebula fully intends for that to be his undoing.

She drops down just as the imposter shrugs and takes a step back, her stance shifting from casual to battle-ready so swiftly Nebula is almost jealous.

Nebula barely has time to finish putting herself back together before daggers start flying. The first misses Thanos entirely — but perhaps that wasn’t its goal, as the weapon clatters to the ground right beside her.

The second one, however, scores a deep slash on Thanos’s arm, a few inches above the gauntlet, and Nebula feels her lips pull up into a savage grin.

Thanos is only stunned for half a second — and maybe not even that — but that is all the time Nebula needs. Her fingers curl around the dagger and she springs herself at him.

She aims for his arm, aims for the gauntlet. He has two stones already, but if they keep him from using them, Nebula knows they can win this. She knows  _ she _ can win this — and loathe as she is to admit it, she and the imposter do work well together.

It isn’t as seamless as working with her sister, though, despite the likeness, but it’s good. They don’t manage to take off the gauntlet, but their assault is relentless enough that Thanos can’t close his fist, can’t use the stones he has. 

She and the imposter dance around Thanos’s fists, avoiding him when they can’t and trusting the other to step in when they can’t, and it works. If Thanos speaks at first, starting to monologue about ‘betrayal’ and ‘treachery’, he quickly falls as silent as Nebula and her impromptu ally.

That, more than anything else, tells Nebula that they actually a chance here.

The annoyance in her father’s eyes shifts into anger, then caution. By the time they finally flash with fear, just as Nebula scores a second, wider gash across his wrist, Nebula’s blood is singing in her veins, and she can almost taste her revenge.

But then... 

Then Nebula lunges herself at Thanos. From the corner of her eye, she sees green and her mind thinks  _ Gamora. _ She reacts as she would if her sister were truly here, ducking down to let her work around Nebula.

Only that is not her sister. This stranger doesn’t remember the hundreds of times she and Gamora have practiced this type of maneuver, doesn’t know that Nebula is leaving the target open for them, ready to follow up for a deadly strike.

The move fails. Nebula manages to stab Thanos in the shoulder but she loses hold of her knife and has to fall back. The imposter snarls and misses her mark, but more importantly, she too has stepped back.

It’s only a second, really, but during that second, Thanos closes his fist. 

The world goes violet, and Nebula despairs.

 

* * *

 

There is a moment where Loki actually think they will win this, that they will kill Thanos. The Titan’s bleeding from multiple gashes over his body, while Loki and Nebula have so far avoided any grievous harm.

Pushing past her exhaustion and the aching in her limbs is more than a fair price for a chance to take off Thanos’s head.

But she overshoots. Her team-up with Gamora is good but far from seamless, and it costs them.

Loki knows they’ve lost the instant Nebula loses her grip on her borrowed dagger. 

The next, Thanos closes his fist. Purple light bursts from it, pushing down on them until Loki’s fallen to her knees, unable to stand. She’s suffocating, her hands scrambling up to free her throat from constraints that simply aren’t there, desperate for air to enter her lungs.

Beside her, she thinks she can hear Nebula do the same — or perhaps it’s just the sound of her bones, creaking.

She gasps uselessly. Her fingers twitch by her side, and she somehow manages to summon enough of her seidr to push back at the Power stone. The pressure shifts and lightens. Green clashes with the purple before vanishing in a shower of sparks, but for one instant, Loki can  _ breathe. _

_ “Loki!” _   Thanos snarls. “I thought I’d killed you!”

Had she had the breath to, Loki would have laughed, but she’s saving that air for more important things — mainly her life.

And Nebula’s too, she supposes. Leaving her behind now seems… unsporting of her.

Her seidr fizzles out when Loki tries to teleport them out. Her blood runs cold.

She doesn’t know if it’s that she used too much of it recently — between the Statesman to Knowhere to this ship, she hasn’t exactly had much time to rest and recuperate — or if it’s the Power stone, still pressing down on them.

All that matters is that she’s stuck.

“No,” she rasps, and Thanos laughs.

He picks her up by the throat, just like he had on the Statesman, and panics claws at her chest. This time, Loki doesn’t have a clever trick to fool him.

If Thanos speaks, she doesn’t hear it.

Instead, her eyes fall to the Space stone. Its faint blue glow casts shadows over the gauntlet Thanos is holding to her throat.

She grins.

Perhaps the trickster does have one last trick after all.

Because underneath the power of the space stone Loki’s own seidr still lingers, and it calls to her.

Calling back is the easiest thing in the world — that it brings back the Space stone’s borrowed power with it, running out as it is? Well, that’s just a bonus.

_ Take us away, _ she tells her spell, thinking about herself and Nebula. Her seidr catches, she hears a sound like glass breaking, and the world turns blue.   
  



	7. I am the thousand winds that blow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this (very unsurprisingly) keep growing longer than I meant it to - sadly this means I'm running out of lines from to poem to name chapters after :p
> 
> I'm so grateful for every one of you who takes the time to read, leave kudos and/or comment. I love you all!
> 
> Have this extra-long chapter as a measure of my gratitude. I hope you like it. It was certainly fun to write.

They land in the midst of a battle, because of course, they do. That’s just Loki’s luck.

She barely gets to catch a glimpse of trees before she has to duck. Loki lets out a startled yelp she’ll deny to her dying day — and beyond it too, if past experience is anything to go by — and kicks her enemy away before he can try again.

Luckily, their little trip has been the jump start his system needed. Loki's still not back at one hundred percent, but her seidr is back at somewhat acceptable levels — lower than she'd prefer going into battles, but she's been in worse situations before — and she's no longer so exhausted.

Which is good, because Loki’s opponent doesn’t seem very keen on letting her catch her breath.

A twirl of her fingers summons more of her daggers — Loki briefly mourns the one she'd lost at Thanos's base, though apparently Nebula had somehow managed to keep hers — and she joins the fight in earnest.

Nebula, meanwhile, has already beheaded one of the Outriders and is running toward a second.

“Drop that form,” she snarls, tossing a venomous look Loki’s way. She kicks out another Outrider’s legs from under him and stabs him in the throat.

Belatedly, Loki realizes she still looks like Gamora.

She shrugs off the disguise gladly, mirroring Nebula’s action and getting rid of another of their assailants. “Better?” she calls out, dodging a spray of blood.

“Much,” Nebula grunts.

Sadly, she doesn’t say much after that. Loki does try, of course, but between Nebula’s vicious glares and the Outriders’s simple grunts and screams, there really isn’t much conversation to be had.

“You people are no fun, really,” she states with a sad pout, slashing her knife at an arm, severing the nerves and rendering it useless. Another slash, from her other dagger this time, cuts the creature’s throat. Loki wipes it as clean as she can on its skin, shaking her head. 

“Where’s the banter?” she continues. “The quipping?” She beheads a third creature, wincing when its blood stains her leathers. “Really, this is dreadfully dull.”

Her borrowed dagger sails in front of her face, burying itself into the back of the Outrider that had been about to jump her.

“You talk too much,” Nebula snarls, ducking into a roll and picking the dagger back up.

Loki snorts and drops the illusion, revealing herself to stand in the perfect position to kill the misguided creature who had thought to sneak up on her. “I had that.”

Nebula scowls. “Whatever.”

Together, they make quick work of their enemies. This isn’t her favorite form of combat — Loki has to be far more careful about her use of seidr than she usually is — but she’s still good at it. Killing the Outriders is great stress-relief, even if it is, as she said, kind of dull.

It is only once their last enemy is dead that Loki allows herself to stop and bend over. She banishes her daggers with a flash of green — something tells her cleaning them now would be useless — and heaves.

When she comes back up, Nebula has come to a stop in front of him. “Loki,” she states coolly. “ I vowed to kill you once for your failure on Earth.”

“Ah.” Loki licks her dry lips, arches an eyebrow. “I don’t suppose you’ve reconsidered since?”

Nebula merely stares at him for an uncomfortable amount of time. Finally, she nods and flips the dagger she’d still been holding. She seems reluctant to part from it, but hands it back to Loki handle first nonetheless.

“Keep it,” Loki decides on a whim.

“I can find something else,” Nebula replies. Her eyes narrow, but she’s already tucked the weapon back to herself.

“You can give it back to me once the battle’s over,” Loki offers instead. “I wouldn’t want the one watching my back defenseless.”

“The one —” Nebula’s teeth grit audibly. “If anything,  _ I _ was watching your back.”

Loki ignores her in favor of taking in their surroundings. Now that they’re no longer actively being attacked, she can take a few moments to figure out where the Space stone’s power took them.

Apparently, Nebula’s had the same idea, because she asks, “Where are we?”

“Midgard.” Loki grimaces. “Earth,” she corrects for Nebula’s benefit.

She’s not surprised to realize they’re on Midgard. It makes sense really, but there are few places she wants to be less.

When Loki looks back at her companion, Nebula is scowling, her grip tight on her dagger. “Thanos isn’t here,” she states.

Loki considers lying for about half a second. 

But…

“No,” she replies, deciding the lie wouldn’t be worth the time energy lost fighting when Nebula learned the truth — and learn it she would when she failed to find Thanos on the battlefield.

Nebula’s scowl deepens. “Take me back to him!”

“I can’t.” It rankles to admit it, but it’s true. If she had the stone, Loki might be able to do it, but she doesn’t, and as far as she knows, Thanos is half a galaxy away. She’s good, but not that good. Nobody is, really, not without some kind of tool like the Tesseract or the Bifrost, both of which are currently out of her reach.

“But,” she hastens to add as Nebula’s face continues to darken, “he will have to come here, eventually, if he wants to get all the stones.”

Nebula’s grip on her dagger shifts. “Explain,” she states tersely.

Loki relates what she knows — that the Mind and Time stones were here, or had been (she doesn’t say anything about the Space stone, because the fewer people know about that the better).

Nebula nods. “He will come,” she agrees. Her expression eases into frustrated disappointment, and she rolls her shoulders.

“Now what?” she asks.

As if on cue, they hear a loud crash, coming from deeper into the forest. Loki waves her hand toward it, lips fighting back against her amusement. “I’d wager that was an invitation.”

“The first one is mine,” Nebula bites back, already moving.

Her savage grin reflects Loki’s thoughts perfectly, and she mirrors it, racing to rejoin Nebula.

 

* * *

 

Perhaps, Loki thinks when they stumble into Cull Obsidian not five minutes later, their plan hadn’t been the most thought-out.

Bruce is also there, decked out (for some ludicrous reason) in one of Stark’s suits of armor. Luckily for them, he is the perfect distraction for Obsidian, who doesn’t notice Loki and Nebula sneaking up on him until it’s far too late. 

Loki slashes his heels while Nebula sprints onto Obsidian’s back. She hangs off his neck for about half a second, before swinging around and stabbing him through the eye. Bruce screams and punches him in the throat, and finally, Obsidian dies, crashing to the ground loudly.

For a moment, the only sounds left are the waterfalls and the whirring of Bruce’s armor as he flips up the visor. Then, Bruce finally speaks.

“Who are you?”

It belatedly occurs to Loki that shifting back into her female form rather than to go back to the way Midgardians are used to see her might cause some identification issues.

She sighs, inwardly mourning all the lost opportunities to mess with people with that, and projects her male self. She’s not feeling like going back to it — not yet at least — so this will have to do for an explanation.

Bruce’s gaping is nonetheless very satisfying. “Loki?!”

She drops the illusion and smirks, twirling her knives.

“Guilty as charged,” she replies to Bruce, unable to resist the urge to add a little wave. She nods toward her companion, who pulls out her dagger with a disgusting squelching sound, before bending down to wash it off in the water. “And this is Nebula.”

Bruce shoots her a disturbed look and wisely shuffles to gain some distance. Loki eyes him curiously, gesturing to the armor.

“What happened to your creature?”

Bruce’s face contorts with annoyance. “He won’t show.” He keeps mumbling as he awkwardly shuffles out of the water, but Loki tunes him out.

This is… actually disturbing. Since the Hulk had no problem making an apparition on the Statesman, Loki has to assume this is a new development, most likely related to their encounter with Thanos.

To think the beast might still be scared by that when it survived with nary a scratch is oddly disquieting.

His brother’s name snaps her out of his musings and Loki tunes back into the conversation.

“Did you come here with Thor?” Loki doesn’t get a chance to reply though and Bruce is already shaking his head. “Wait, no, of course you didn’t, I would have seen you.”

“Thor’s here?” The question falls from her lips before she can try to shape it less desperately, and Loki inwardly curses herself for it.

Mercifully, Bruce either doesn’t notice or pretends to. “Yes,” he says, nodding. “He came storming in” Loki’s lips quirk at the pun “and went off to hunt down Thanos.”

“Thanos’s not here,” Nebula interjects before Loki can.

“He —” Bruce trails off, looking disturbed. “How do you know? How does she know?”

“Because we were just with him,” Loki replies, wrinkling her nose in distaste. She misses her lies; all this truth has her feeling almost naked, but it's far less pleasant. “And he’s quite a way off from this planet.”

“Oh.” Bruce seems at a loss. “Well, that’s… good?”

Nebula scowls. “Hardly. If he’s not here, we can’t kill him; and if we can’t kill him, he’ll keep going after the stones until he has them all.”

“Well, he won’t get the Mind stone. Viz — Vision — still has it.”

Loki has no idea who that is, but she nods as if she does.

… Come to think of it, actually, Loki does remember from her time as Odin that Thor  _ had _ left the Mind stone in the hands of a being called the Vision. 

“Where is this… Vision now?” Nebula asks urgently, before Loki can.

Bruce looks around dazedly. “I… don’t know? He was somewhere up there, last I saw him,” he says, pointing toward the top of the waterfall.

Nebula growls out a curse. Before any of them can react, she takes off into a sprint and starts scaling the cliff. Bruce watches her, gaping, before looking back down at Loki.

“So… Where —”

Loki doesn’t hear the end of his sentence, cutting off the thread of seidr that was linking her back to her duplicate. She looks down the cliff, and smirks at Nebula, who is remarkably already halfway done climbing.

Even from this distance, she can see the other woman snarl back as she picks up her pace.

No fool, Loki doesn’t wait for her. Nebula’s smart, she can make her own way from here, and Loki has no doubt that Nebula can and will find her if she needs to.

In the meantime, though, Loki aims to find this ‘Vision’ and the stone he carries...

 

* * *

 

There is a feeling Steve gets whenever the tides of a battle turn, a shift in the air. He had felt in back on the Valkyrie, when he’d realized he’d have to put the plane into the ice; he’d felt it in New York, too, the moment Tony had told them there was a nuke headed their way.

(He had felt it too, two years later, when he’d found out about Howard and decided not to tell anyone. It had been the first time Steve had ignored that feeling, and he thinks he might regret it for the rest of his life.

No, he knows he will. He already does.)

The point is, though, he feels it now, as he accepts Vision’s hand and lets himself be pulled up, Corvus Glaive’s body crumpling to the ground as Vision lets go of the blade holding him up.

The air feels… lighter somehow. The battle is still raging, he can hear it, but it’s not the insurmountable wave it was at first. It’s dying done, and the relief makes Steve’s knees go weak.

“Let’s get you back to Shuri’s lab,” Steve says, turning to Vision and squeezing his shoulder. He goes for a smile. “Get that stone out of you.”

“Allow me to assist you with that, Captain.”

The drawl on that  _ Captain _ is so familiar Steve bristles. His new shields come up defensively as he whirls around, scowling.  _ “Loki.” _

But Loki doesn’t make a move to attack, just springs back and raises his hands defensively, waving them to show they’re empty.

“I assure you, I come in peace,” Loki says, as though Steve has any reason to believe a single word out of that mouth.

He’s about to reply when Vision interjects, stepping between them. He’s still leaning heavily on Steve, but his voice is steady. “It’s fine, Captain. I do not believe she means us any harm.”

“She?” Steve echoes dimly; and he has to take a step back when he realizes that where he’d expected Loki stands a woman. Oh, they do share their coloring — and a love for leather, apparently — but the person standing in front of them is undeniably a woman.

She is also very undeniably Loki.

“Yes,” Loki retorts. “And the android is right. Once again, I come in peace.” The words sound more sincere this time, and Steve allows himself to relax minutely.

When Loki doesn’t suddenly try to stab them or otherwise go for the stone, Steve lets his arms drop back to his side.

“Fine,” he says, because they don’t really have time for this. “Then you can help me get him back to the lab.”

Realizing Loki would have no idea where those are, he points in their direction.

Steve swings Vision’s arm around his shoulder, taking more of the android’s weight, and starts walking. Loki keeps two steps ahead of them, clearing up the path. She’s ruthlessly efficient at dispatching the handful of Outriders that crosses path with them, and with each one she drops, Steve relaxes further.

Finally, they reach the bottom of the structure making up Shuri’s laboratory. Loki comes to a stop next to them, and Steve doesn’t even realize she’s stepped into his personal space until she’s speaking.

“Trusting me, Captain?”

Steve snorts. “Hardly. But I trust Bruce, and he said you were on our side in this.”

He had, too. Of course, they hadn’t exactly had a lot of time to catch each other up on everything they’d missed, but they’d had enough for the basics — which had included telling everyone that Loki had been sent by Thanos for the Tesseract, and that he’d now defected.

Loki looks almost disappointed at that, but she sighs. “I guess it is for the best.” She looks up at the wall in front of them. “Now what?”

Steve frowns. “We need to get him inside. Do you see a door?” Steve doesn’t, but perhaps Loki will have better luck. It’s becoming kind of urgent, too — Vision has been too silent, only letting out small grunts of pain.

Loki hums as she examines the wall. She shakes her head and Steve’s heart sinks. “No,” she says.

Steve sighs and readjusts his grip on Vision’s arm. “I guess we’ll just have to —”

“Hold on,” Loki interrupts. She moves too quickly for Steve to stop. She grips Steve’s shoulder with one hand, and Vision’s with the other, and the world falls away.

Steve’s stomach drops and he comes out swinging. He clips Loki’s left cheek, drawing a line of blood, and the woman rounds up on him with a dagger.

A bolt of energy crashes between them, singing Steve’s hair as he ducks just in time. Vision lets out a strangled scream as he falls to his knees, and Steve curses.

“Sorry, sorry, I thought you were one of those alien guys,” comes Shuri’s distinct voice. She sounds more gleeful than sheepish, and when Steve looks up at her, she’s tucking away a glove-like contraption to help him pull Vision to his feet and toward the examination table they’d been using earlier.

“It’s fine, Princess,” Steve replies. “No harm done.”

Shuri actually pouts at that, but Steve doesn’t hold her focus for much longer as she and Vision devolve back into the kind of techno-babble he doesn’t have a chance in hell to follow.

So Steve turns back to Loki. He’s just in time to see her vanish away her dagger in a flash of green, and he walks up to her, extending a hand.

She eyes it like it’s a venomous snake for a long second before clasping it.

“I”m sorry,” Steve says. “I overreacted when you… teleported us in.”

Loki lets go of his hand. “Well, I guess in those circumstances, it was to be expected.”

Steve nods, understanding the unvoiced agreement.

“For what it’s worth,” he says after a beat, “I think that this — you helping us now — this matters.”

Loki nods absently. “If you say so.”

Steve’s saved from trying to find an answer by Shuri’s triumphant shout. Loki forgotten, Steve strides up to her.

“Did it work?” he asks. 

For all answer, Shuri just grabs a pair of pincers, and very carefully comes to pluck the stone out of Vision’s forehead. It leaves behind a hole, but as Steve watches, Vision’s skin seems to light up and knit itself back together, until the hole is covered with the same smooth material as the rest of him.

“Fascinating,” Loki breathes by his side.

Steve keeps watching Vision, anxiously waiting for the android to open his eyes. When he does, they are clearer than before.

“How do you feel?” Steve asks as Shuri bustle away, carrying the stone in a petri dish back to her desk.

Vision pauses before answering, tilting his head slowly. “I feel… I feel like me, I suppose. Not lesser… But different. Yes.” He nods, gingerly sitting up. “Different.”

Steve’s lips stretch into a grip. He pats Vision’s shoulder. “That’s great news.”

“Indeed,” Vision agrees, granting Steve a rare smile back. His face suddenly shifts into something urgent. “Have you heard from Wanda yet?”

Steve swallows, shakes his head. “No. But I’m sure she’s fine.”

Vision grunts as he pushes himself off the table. “Yes, she is very capable. But nonetheless, we should attempt to contact her. Now that my connection to the stone has been severed, I believe she should destroy it.”

Beside them, Loki lets out a strangled noise, startling Steve, who had somewhat forgotten about her presence.

They both turn to face her. 

“You think you have a way to destroy the Mind stone?” she asks, incredulous.

Vision inclines his head. “Yes,” he states. “Wanda’s powers come as a direct consequence of the stone — I believe she might be able to use them to destroy it.”

From the way Loki’s eyes go wide, she actually believes it too.

“Well, you’re in luck,” Shuri interrupts, grinning as she bounces up to them. “They just got in touch — battle’s over, we won.” She nods to Vision. “Wanda’s fine and coming back here to take care of the stone too.”

Steve’s shoulders aren’t the only ones to sag in relief at those words.

He can’t relax too much, though. The battle may be won, but the war…

The war isn’t over yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So somehow I keep writing fight scenes even though I hate doing it? It's such a pain arg :/
> 
> Also if you're wondering why Thanos didn't show... Well, that'll be coming up soon ^^


	8. interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> meanwhile, elsewhere

“Look, all I’m saying is that this ship isn’t exactly a stealth ship and if we want to, you know, not die long enough to go after Loki,  _ maybe _ we should have an actual plan that is not just, “storm the castle and hope for the best”.”

Peter’s voice echoes with exasperation, and though Gamora isn’t looking at him, she can see him throwing his hands up in the air and away from the console from the corner of her eye.

“Thanos’s base isn’t set up in a castle,” comes Drax’s gruff voice. “We should expect a base, or a ship — not some castle.”

Peter’s frustrated growl brings a brief smile to Gamora’s lips, even though the situation is far from idyllic. But this is why she loves the Guardians — they make her see hope even when everything seems hopeless.

“It’s not an actual castle,” Peter retorts, and really, one day he’ll have to figure out that trying to use metaphors to Drax just won’t get him anywhere. “It’s just — no, you know what, nevermind, that’s not the point. The point is, we need a plan.”

“We have a plan,” Drax replies. “Go in, grab Loki, kill Thanos. Simple.”

“That’s, that’s not a plan,” Peter replies, dumbfounded. “Gamora, back me up on this. Tell Drax that’s not a plan.”

Gamora shakes her head. “I don’t know,” she replies teasingly. “Drax does have the essential parts of it.”

_ “I know what this is,” _ Peter grumbles to himself. _ “This is mutiny.” _

Gamora ignores his antics in favor of scrutinizing the dark space they’re traveling through. With how fast they’re flying, of course, she’s not likely to see anything, but Gamora wants to be ready for whenever Peter drops them back into a slower speed.

And as though the universe was listening, Peter does. “This is the time where that plan I mentioned might really come in handy. Just saying.”

Gamora stiffens in her seat, tuning out Peter’s voice. “Something’s wrong.” It’s barely more than an impression, with nothing concrete to lie on, but Gamora’s sure of it.

“See?” Peter crows to Drax. Gamora can practically hear him blanch before his next sentence. “Wait, what, what do you mean something’s wrong? These are not words I want to hear right now, somebody please tell me I did not just hear those words.”

“Gamora’s right” Mantis, her antennas lit up, agrees. “This place feels wrong.”

“Well of course it does,” Peter replies. “Thanos’s lair, anyone? It’s bound to have all the bad mojo.”

But Mantis shakes her head, confirming Gamora’s impression. “This is… different,” she says. “Not like it was on Knowhere, or when we found Thor and…”

“You can say his name, Mantis,” Gamora replies, her lips tilting up into a smile.

Mantis shakes her head urgently, antennas drooping. “But what if he hears it?” she whispers.

Gamora’s smile widens. “He’s asleep. And I don’t think his… all-seeing thing works when he’s asleep.”

Mantis doesn’t look reassured, but then again, she hadn’t since Heimdall’s ability had come up earlier, before the man had retired for the duration of the trip to Thanos’s hideout.

They had promised to wake him up when they arrived, and Gamora had every intention of doing so — as soon as they knew more about what they were flying into.

Because what is coming up on them looks nothing like the base Gamora had expected.

Or rather, it looks like it  _ used to be that base. _ Parts of it are still sparkling purple, and Gamora could recognize the Power stone’s signature anywhere.

The ship falls silent as more and more destruction is unveiled. They stand up from their seats, drifting closer to the windows to stare out at the sight.

“... What are the chances Thanos died in that?” Peter quips weakly from his seat.

Gamora shots him a glare. “Too slim to consider. He’s alive, but something must have happened.”

“Huh, yeah, something pissed him off?” Peter rolls his eyes. “I’m betting it was Loki. That guy just gave me those ‘can annoy anyone’ vibes.”

“What vibes? I did not get any vibes,” Drax grumbles.

Gamora shakes her head. “This was done by the Power stone. Loki doesn’t have that.”

“So he probably made Thanos mad enough to use it,” Peter replies, but he winces almost immediately, looking like he wants to swallow his words.

He clears his throat. “Anyway, I think we can safely assume that Loki's not here.” 

“Or not alive,” Drax interjects.

Peter twitches. “Or that. But let’s assume that he is. Where is he now?”

“Oh, oh, maybe he escaped?” Mantis offers, eagerly raising her hand.

“I… Maybe.” Peter nods.

Silence falls as they round up around the ruins that were Thanos’s base. There doesn’t appear to be any sign of life, not any trace or where to go next.

“What do we do now?” Mantis asks with a small voice.

Drax replies, smashing his fist against his thigh. “I say we go after Thanos!”

“Of course, you do.” Peter snorts. “You always want to go after Thanos — and look where that got us! Into this mess!”

“Actually that’s not a bad idea,” Gamora replies before the situation can worsen. “Thanos could tell us what happened to Loki, and he’ll be easier to track.”

Gamora knows how her father thinks. She can find him. Loki, however, she’s far less sure about.

“Right,” Peter retorts, his voice rising, “only there’s just one problem with that — we have no idea where Thanos is!”

“But I do.”

Gamora swings around, hand dropping to her weapon before she realizes it’s just Heimdall.

“You know where Thanos is?” Peter asks, dubious.

Heimdall nods back regally. “I know where he’s going,” he states, his golden eyes staring back at them unflinchingly. 

“He’s going to Titan.”

 

* * *

 

So far, space has been kind of a blast. Much better than some boring field trip. Of course, Peter could have gone without the nearly suffocating outside a spaceship, or Mr. Stark trying to jettison him back home like a kid, or the sort of purposeful but not really crashing of the said spaceship, but the new suit is awesome, and Mr. Stark made him an  _ Avenger. _

Him. Peter Parker.

An  _ Avenger. _

It boggles the mind, and honestly, when they get back home, Peter is probably going to scream about that for like, hours.

And now, Peter gets to hang out with  _ actual aliens —  _ Mr. Stark really does take him to all the best places.

Sure, the initial stand-off was kind of tense — Peter will probably have nightmares about that scene from Alien again, joy — but now that they’ve figured out that they’re all on the same side (against that Thanos dude), things are better.

The Guardians of the Galaxy — which, cool name — are weird but nice. They also apparently have two additional members, a talking tree and a raccoon, who went off on a weapon quest with Thor.

Seriously, Peter couldn’t make this up.

But compared to them, and Doctor Strange, and Mr. Stark, Peter is feeling a little left out. Mr. Stark, Gamora and Starlord are trying to figure out a plan while Doctor Strange just went off to do his own thing (it looks really weird, but Peter’s not exactly an expert on magic, so he can’t judge).

He would try to join in with Drax and Mantis, but they look… busy. Peter isn’t sure he wants to interrupts.

He sighs and finds a rock to sit on. Might as well use this time to get more familiar with his new suit.

Something tells him they’ll be waiting a while.

 

* * *

 

When Stephen lets go of the Eye’s power, he has to give himself a moment to just take it in. Millions of possible futures, and Stephen has just lived through all of them — and died through some of them too.

He doesn’t know which was worse.

“You’re back. You’re alright.” Stark’s voice, grating though it may be, grounds him back to this reality — to this present — and Stephen exhales a slow breath before standing up.

“Hey, what was that?” Peter asks. He sounds worried, and Stephen has to close his eyes against the assaults of all the  _ other _ futures in which he’d heard that exact tone.

(This boy is too young to be here, too young to be part of this war — but in a war for the entire universe, what can they do but fight?)

Stephen is still panting as he answers. “I went forward in time to view alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict.”

The air shifts, and Stephen feels the pressure of their makeshift team’s expectations rest on his shoulders.

“How many did you see?” Quill asks.

Stephen swallows past his dry throat before answering. “14,000,605.”

“How many did we win?”

Stephen finishes pulling himself together, squaring his shoulders as he stares back into Stark’s eyes.

“Enough.”


	9. somewhere a clock is ticking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a ghost, standing in the corner.

Now that the battle has come to an end, Thor feels weary. Coming back to Midgard, shouting Thanos’s name and rushing into the familiar thrum of a fight, that had been easy. It had felt right.

But now the high has died down, and Thanos is nowhere to be found. In fact, it is becoming increasingly evident that he was never even there in the first place. 

Thor swallows bitterly. Without the prompting of combat, his righteous rage is dying down, bringing back the ghosts that linger beyond it. 

His people, Loki, their parents… 

Thor has too many ghosts. 

He walks silently as Barnes leads them away from the desolated field. Though convincing Groot to leave had been easy, dragging Rocket away from the half-destroyed machine he’d been diving into had been very much the opposite of that.

He’d only agreed — reluctantly — when Barnes had mentioned that they’d be going where all the real “toys” were.

Now that they’re getting closer, Thor is beginning to believe Barnes might not even have been lying. The city he spots in the distance is far different from anything else he’s seen on Midgard, and Thor’s chest aches as it reminds him of home instead.

“Where are we?” he asks, desperate for a distraction.

Barnes seems to startle. “Right,” he says. “I forgot you wouldn’t have been here for that. “This country is Wakanda, and we’re in Africa. It’s a pretty fantastic place — Steve brought me here after...” He swallows, a muscle jumping in his jaw. “The people here really helped me.” 

Thor nods. The Captain had never really shared much of what had been done to his childhood friend with the team, but he had approached Thor, once, to ask him if Asgardian medicine could help when they found him.

(It had always been a ‘when’, with Steve, never an ‘if’, and Thor is so glad to see he’d had the right of it.)

“And where exactly are we going?” Rocket pipes up, stopping his muttered scolding of a grumpy Groot to send them a cautiously curious look.

“We’re going to the Princess’s lab,” Barnes reply, hand coming up to play with the strap of his gun. “Vision was supposed to be with her so they could separate him from the Mind stone, and we all agreed to meet up back there when the fighting ended.”

It’s a solid plan, and Thor nods again. Still, he can’t resist but ask, “Have you had any news from the others?”

Barnes bites his lips before shaking his head. “No. My com got blown out a while back.” He scowls. “Punk better be fine,” he mutters, knuckles going white over the strap he’s still holding.

“I’m sure they all are,” Thor replies, but he remembers how his stomach had sunk when he’d realize he couldn’t see any of the Avengers once the battle was over.

They had been there. He had seen them — Steve most of all, but Bruce too, and Rhodey and Sam, flying from above.

They had been there, and then they hadn’t been, and Thor hopes this doesn’t mean what he thinks it might. He hopes he doesn’t have more ghosts following him now.

“Yeah, yeah,” Rocket grumbles. “What’s this I’m hearing about a princess? Cause me and Groot don’t really get on with royalty.”

“I am Groot,” Groot protests, causing Rocket’s scowl to widen.

“No, they  _ used to _ think you were adorable, now you’re just…” Rocket’s following gesture encompasses all of Groot’s body, and Groot protests again.

Despite himself, Thor finds his lips twitching up into a grin as the two banter while Barnes looks more and more confused.

“... Does he understand him?”

Thor lets his grin widen. “Doesn’t everyone?”

The appalled look Barnes sends him back is gratifying, and Thor even lets out a bark of laughter.

They both sober up quickly though when they turn back and see Rocket glaring at them.

“If you’re quite done…”

“My apologies, sweet rabbit,” Thor replies. “It was not our intentions to offend you.”

Rocket’s fur bristles. “I’m not offended! I’m concerned —  _ shut up,” _ he hisses at Groot.

Barnes just shakes his head. He dearly looks like a man longing for sanity to return to his life, or perhaps alcohol — Thor knows that look well. He had once delighted in inspiring it in his brother.

_ Loki. _ Thor’s spirits instantly crash again, the grief so potent Thor isn’t sure he can breathe around it.

Rocket taps his foot on the ground, and Thor’s world sharpens back into focus. He tightens his hands around Stormbreaker’s shaft to hide their shaking.

“Well?” Rocket asks impatiently.

Barnes shakes his head slowly. “I wouldn’t be too worried,” he says. “They’re not exactly… ordinary royalty.”

Rocket doesn’t look too reassured, and Thor contemplates whether he should remind his companions that he, technically, is a king.

_ What’s a king without his kingdom — without his  _ people? a snide voice whispers in his mind, and Thor’s throat closes.

They walk the rest of the way in silence.

 

* * *

 

The Princess — Shuri, as she introduces herself — welcomes them loudly into her labs. She practically kidnaps Barnes the instant his feet cross the threshold, peppering him with rapid-fire questions about his arm and how well the gun worked and did he notice anything she could improve on?

Besides Thor, Rocket whistles, impressed. “Now that’s a nice place.”

“I am Groot.”

“No, of course, it’s not as great as Nidavellir,  _ Groot,” _ Rocket retorts, shooting Groot a betrayed look. “How could you even think that?”

And Thor would pay attention to them, he really would — or to the friends he can see, alive and (moderately) well and celebrating this victory — except…

Except that there is a ghost, standing in the corner. He’s arguing with a blue-skinned woman Thor’s never even seen before, and behind them, a group of women in gold and red leather armors are watching them carefully.

As Thor watches, the blue-skinned woman snarls something and slashes forward with a dagger Thor hadn’t even noticed her holding.

The ghost dodges with a laugh, and a flare of green later, the blue-skinned woman is daggerless. She scowls, snarls something virulent again, and stalks away.

_ “Nebula?” _ Rocket’s voice reaches him like through a fob. Thor’s ears ring.

He stumbles. His fingers go limp and Stormbreaker crashes loudly to the ground.

The ghost turns to face him, and his eyes go wide in a way that is impossibly familiar.

“Loki?” The name falls from his lips like a curse, like a prayer.

It takes Thor thirteen steps to cross the room — that is thirteen steps too long.

Loki flinches as Thor pulls him into a hug, but he is real and solid and  _ alive _ under Thor’s hands, and Thor tightens his grip. He never wants to let go.

Loki’s arms slowly snake around his back. It’s not quite a hug, but it’s closer than anything else they’ve had in years — and better yet, this time, there is no knife finding his way to his ribs.

Eventually, though, Loki starts to squirm. “Brother, this is undignified, let me go,” he hisses.

“Never,” thor chokes.

“Are you crying??” Loki’s voice sounds horrified, and Thor chuckles weakly into his brother’s hair.

“No,” he lies.

“Yes, you are,” Loki replies. “I can feel you getting snot all over my hair, and it’s disgusting. Stop it, or I’ll make you,” he grumbles.

And yet, despite his words, Loki doesn’t move to do so.

In the end, that’s what prompts Thor to break the hug. He doesn’t pull back entirely, instead keeping a hand on Loki’s shoulder, but Loki seems willing to let him have that — at least for now.

“Brother…  _ How _ is this possible? I saw you die.” 

Loki arches an eyebrow at him. “Because  _ that _ would be the first time,” he drawls.

Thor shakes his head, speechless, a wave of anger he wishes wasn’t familiar brewing in his gut.

_ (How is it that Loki can never see what him dying is doing to Thor — has done to Thor? How can he not  _ realize _ that he is mourned, every single time, because Thor has no way of seeing through that particular trick? _

_ How can he not see that Thor has no choice but to mourn him every time like it is the last time, because for all he knows, it might be?) _

“Repetition doesn’t make it easier,” Thor manages to choke back.

“I…” Loki’s eyes dart to the side and he licks his lips. “I didn’t exactly have a choice there, Thor. And I tried to get back to you,” he tacks on, almost pouting.

This is the closest he has ever gotten to an apology, Thor realizes with belated wonder, and he squeezes his brother’s shoulder once before letting go. His lips stretch into a grin.

Rocket’s voice comes crashing through the still present haze in his mind, bringing back the real world with it.

_ “Wait wait wait. That’s _ your brother?” Rocket says incredulously. “Looks more like a sister to me.”

“I am Groot,” Groot agrees.

Thor blinks, and his eyes fall back to Loki — Loki, who is decidedly not his  _ brother _ right now, and is staring back at Thor like a snake waiting to strike. 

Or rather like he expects Thor to strike, and only aims to get there first.

(And how many time has Loki done this that Thor hadn’t seen? How many times had his sister, or brother, tried to drive Thor away before Thor could tell them to go?

How many times had Thor let himself be fooled?

_ Too many. _ The answer will always be too many.)

Thor blinks again.

“Well,” he replies slowly, holding his sister’s gaze, “that depends on her, really.”

The shock that flashes through Loki’s eyes is as rewarding as it is heartbreaking, but Thor consoles himself with the knowledge that he can be better now. Loki is alive, and that means Thor can do better by her.

He  _ will _ do better by her.

 

* * *

 

Even though Loki really should have expected it, once Thor sees her, he refuses to let her leave his sight.

This means that Loki acquires a blonde-haired, puppy-dog-eyed shadow, and it is increasingly annoying.

She can see Thor’s friends in the background, laughing at them. It’s not meanly meant, she can tell that much — they are happy for her brother, and Loki can begrudgingly support that — but it grates on her anyway.

She wishes she could just… stab them a little. People usually stopped laughing so much when she stabbed them.

Unfortunately, most of Thor’s new friends were annoyingly mortal, and as such, Loki couldn’t just  _ stab _ them.

Besides, loath as she was to admit it, they would probably require their help to deal with Thanos, and then with Thor’s idea of requesting shelter for their people on this planet, and that means Loki should avoid antagonizing them too much.

Ugh, things were so much easier when she didn’t care.

Mercifully, the initial party-like atmosphere died quickly once everyone had trickled in.

They all gathered together, and Shuri brought back the Mind stone. She bounced back on her heels as she stepped away. “Now what?”

The Captain’s answer was to be expected, but part of Loki still sank with relief as he said, “We need to go after Thanos.”

“Yeah, I’m with you Cap’,” the man they called Sam answered, “but how?? Since he was a no-show, I’m guessing he’s still in space somewhere. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t exactly go out in space.”

Steve bites his lips, nodding gravely as he stares at the stone.

After a beat, he looks up at Thor. “Can you use that ax of yours? Bring us with you to wherever Thanos is, like you did when you arrived?”

Loki, who hadn’t actually seen her brother arrive, feels her eyebrows climb up her forehead. 

She shoots Thor a questioning look, and he shrugs back sheepishly, his new weapon — Stormbreaker, because apparently, something like Mjolnir wasn’t dramatic enough — resting at his side.

Thor’s fingers tap the wooden handle nervously. “I… don’t know?” He winces and takes a look around the room. “I don’t think so. It uses the power of the Bifrost, and that travels along the branches of Yggdrasil, which —”

“You can’t,” Loki interrupts when she notices half the listeners are beginning to look lost. They don’t have time for Thor to try to explain Yggdrasil to them, nor the Bifrost. “Wherever Thanos is, it won’t be on a world the Bifrost can reach, so you can’t use your axe. Unless you’re willing to throw yourself off the path and hope for the best,” she adds sardonically.

Thor sighs, but concurs.

The Captain looks disappointed, but not surprised. “Well, do you know of any other way we could get to Thanos?”

“Well, Bruce did end up on Sakaar using one of the quinjets?”

Bruce looks startled to hear his name called out. His fingers twitch into his sleeves as he leans forward, shaking his head. “Yeah, no, that’d take forever. I don’t really remember how I got to Sakaar, but some kind of portal was definitely involved. Also, there’s no way the ship could survive space long enough for us to get anywhere close to Thanos.”

He seems to get more animated as he talks about this, though for some reason he keeps tilting his head to the side, like he expects somebody else to be there.

“And even if the quinjet could survive space for extended periods of time,” Vision interjects, “there is no way we could get it to go fast enough to even leave this galaxy before most of us died of old age.”

Loki grimaces, and besides her, Thor looks embarrassed. It’s clear he had once again forgotten how primitive Midgardians actually were.

Thor clears his throat and shakes his head.

“This wouldn’t be a problem if we could move the ship.” He turns expectant eyes to Loki. “You used a secret path to get us to Svartalfheim, remember?”

Oh, how Loki remembers. In her mind’s eyes, the dead dunes of Svartalfheim flash, and when she swallows, she tastes blood.

Outwardly, she shakes her head at her brother, clicking her tongue in annoyance as the focus turns on her.

“And it only worked because I knew the path was there, and where it led. We don’t even know where we’re going.”

Before anyone can open their mouth, Nebula speaks up, her voice cold. “Titan,” she says. “He’ll be going to Titan.”

Muttering erupts in the room, but Nebula silences them with one glare.

“His planet?” Loki asks her, frowning.

“Yes,” Nebula replies. She refuses to elaborate, and Loki sighs.

“Are you sure?” the Captain asks. “How do you know that’s where he’ll go.”

Nebula crosses her arms and clicks her tongue. “I know how he thinks. After what happened on his ship, he’ll want to reassure himself he’s still doing the ‘right thing’.” Her disgust at those words is palpable. “He’ll go back to Titan for that.”

“Wait, what happened on his ship?” Steve asks, brow furrowed in confusion. 

“And does it have anything to do with him not coming to Wakanda?” T’Challa, silent so far, asks.

Nebula shrugs and nods to Loki. “We fought him, injured him, and then escaped. We arrived here during the battle.”

Loki smirks, remembering that shattering noise as she’d taken them away. 

Several people look like they have more questions about Nebula’s statement, but the Captain’s focus turns to Loki. “So you could get us to Thanos, then.”

Loki shakes her head. “I don’t know of any hidden path to Titan.”

Unfortunately, Thor knows her too well now. He stares at her expectantly. “But?”

Loki sighs. “But we could use the Space stone to get there.”

“Hold up, I thought Thanos had that one.” Rocket turns to Thor, his eyes narrowed. “You said Thanos had it!” 

“I am Groot,” Groot nods.

“He did!” Rocket echoes. “You did!”

“I did, yes,” Thor says. He frowns at Loki. “I saw you give it to him.”

Loki’s stomach churns with something that absolutely isn’t shame, and she scoffs to hide it. “You also saw me die, and yet here I am.”

Thor ignores the way those words rob him of his breath. “Well, what could it have been if not the stone?”

Loki shrugs, smirking smugly. “A simulacra, built using my seidr to mimic the stone’s power.”

“Wait, so Thanos  _ doesn’t _ have the Space stone?” Romanoff asks, her eyes narrowed.

Loki shakes her head. “No.” Anticipating the next question, she says, “He had something that looked like it, and even worked like it.” She lets her smirk turn sharp. “For a time, anyway.”

She sees Nebula’s eyes go wide with understanding. 

“That’s what happened back there,” Romanoff continues. “That’s why he hasn’t come after us.”

Loki nods. “It broke as we left, yes.”

Thor’s eyes, when Loki looks back to him, are indecipherable. She swallows. 

“Where is it now?” Thor asks.

“The stone?”

Thor doesn’t dignify that with an answer — not that Loki had expected him to. She sighs and steps back from the table, dutifully ignoring the way the atmosphere turns tense.

She takes two steps to the left and stops in front of Bruce, who starts fidgeting in earnest.

“What are you —”

Loki shushes him, frowning. “I need to concentrate,” she says, raising her hand.

It’s not as easy as reaching into her own pocket space. She couldn’t risk making it so, in case Thanos ever got his hands on her again. Unfortunately, that means that getting it back is needlessly complicated.

Her fingers are wreathed in green fire as she molds the seidr she needs. Bruce is looking increasingly nervous, tossing back looks at Thor like he thinks she can’t see them, and Loki grits her teeth and wills herself to work faster.

The last thing she wants is for Bruce’s beast to wake up now.

Finally, her fingers snag upon the Space stone’s familiar energy trail, and she grins.

She reaches out for the hidden dimension she put the stone in, and pulls it out. It sparkles blue in her palm, and Loki steps back, regretfully putting it down on the table. Its shine gets a little brighter at its sister’s presence, and Loki moves back to her brother’s side.

She almost laughs at how flabbergasted the humans look. What must it have looked to them, to see her reach into the air next to Bruce’s ear and pull out the stone?

(She knows what it looked like — she’s been to Midgard before, and their depictions of magic have made her laugh more than once.

Loki won’t say she had done this on purpose, but… the thought had crossed her mind.)

She clears her throat. This time, she’s the one turning an expectant look toward the others. “When I came to New York before, Selvig built me a device to open portals using the Tesseract. Can you do the same?”

Shuri snorts. “Please, I can do better.” She turns sharp eyes toward Bruce. “You know what they built last time? How it works?”

Bruce tugs at his sleeves. “Well, that was more Tony’s part, but I —” He swallows. “I know enough.”

Vision gets to his feet. “I would also like to assist you, if you would permit.”

Shuri nods. She turns to Loki next. “Well, what are you waiting for? Chop chop, you’re the closest thing we have to an expert on that stone, we’re gonna need your help.”

And Loki wants to bristle, she really does, but there is something about the way Shuri’s eyes brightened up when Loki mentioned a challenge, about the way she called Loki and expert and asked for her help, that makes it easy to follow her.

As they retreat to another corner of the room, Loki hears the Captain address T’Challa. “We’ve imposed enough on you and your country,” he says. “We’ll take the portal back to the Avengers compound. We’re in your debt — the world is in your debt.”

T’Challa shakes his head regally. “We were protecting the world. There is no debt,” Loki hears him say before his attention is back to the stone and the portal they are to build.

She can only hope they are fast enough to complete it before Thanos regains his strength — or worse, gets to either of the two stones he’s still missing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I kinda wanted Thor to keep to his character growth while also touching on the fact that perhaps he hadn't always been the best brother to Loki, but I didn't want to make it too much of a thing cause it's also not the point of this story... I hope it came out okay.  
> Also I have a lot of feelings about Thor. *shakes fist at canon* let my sunshine son be happy goddammit
> 
> Should be only one chapter left now, and perhaps an epilogue.


	10. when the storm arrives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first thing Strange tells them after his cryptic message about the future is that Thanos won’t get there for at least another few hours.  
> The second is, “Thanos wears the power and reality stones.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well looks like I lied and there'll be one more chapter after this -- I probably didn't have to split it again but I kinda felt like it worked better that way...
> 
> Hope you guys like it!

The first thing Strange tells them after his cryptic message about the future is that Thanos won’t get there for at least another few hours. To be honest, it’s kind of anticlimactic.

“It varies,” he says when asked for more details. “In some of the futures I’ve seen, it took him days to get here, sometimes even a week. But the earliest he ever gets here is tomorrow morning.”

“So we plan for that, then,” Tony nods.

Strange hums back. 

The second thing he says is, “Thanos wears the power and reality stones.”

Tony feels his stomach drops. He can’t imagine fighting any of the stones being easy — he still has nightmares about the portal the Tesseract opened above New York, about what Wanda did with the powers she gained from the Mind stone — but somehow, reality and power seem like the worst possible combination.

He glances to the side, where these so-called Guardians of the Galaxy have gathered, and he inwardly sighs. They’re not exactly the A-team here.

Well, they do have Strange and his Time stone on their side. One against two isn’t the worst odds — and it means the Avengers back on Earth have managed to keep the Mind stone safe.

Tony’s about to ask for more information when Quill speaks up. “Wait, didn’t Thor say Thanos had the space stone too?” He turns to his team, who voice their agreement.

Strange shakes his head, raising a hand for them to quiet. “Thor was mistaken, as was Thanos. He never held the Space stone, only a fake.”

Quill chokes on air. Tony gets the feeling. “Wait, _somebody_ _faked an infinity stone?_ How? Why — well, okay, why’s a stupid question, but again, _how?”_

“Erm, and who?” Peter interjects, raising his arm and waving his hand a little, before coughing and pretending he’d been trying to scratch his head when everyone’s focus turned on him.

Tony wants to facepalm. This kid, honestly.

Peter doesn’t give up under the scrutiny though. “I mean, the who seems kind of important, don’t you think? If people can just… fake infinity stones, why don’t we just do the same and hand him a fake Time stone or whatever.”

Strange looks like he’s bitten into a lemon, and Tony wants to laugh. It’s a good question, though, and Tony seconds it.

Strange’s scowl deepens, and he bats away his cloak as it tries to nudge him into answering. 

“To fake an infinity stone on a level that would fool somebody as familiar with them as Thanos, for a  _ second _ time, I would need more time and energy than we currently possess. That time would be better spent preparing for Thanos’s arrival,” he retorts scathingly.

“All I’m hearing is that you can’t do it,” Quill crows, before yelping as Gamora jabs an elbow in his side.

“Perhaps you would like to give it a try, then?” Strange asks, raising an eyebrow.

He smirks as Quill flounders at that.

“Peter apologizes for this,” Gamora replies smoothly, stepping up. She shoots Quill a venomous look that makes him blanch — and has Tony realize that this green-skinned alien should never, ever meet Pepper — before turning back to Strange.

“Tell us your plan.”

 

* * *

 

Thanos looks nothing like Peter imagined, and yet, somehow, at the same time, he also looks exactly how he'd pictured. 

Watching his ship slowly descend into the atmosphere (nothing at all like their own hurried crash had been — has to be one of the most nerve-wracking experiences of Peter's life, but it’s nothing compared to watching him step out of said ship, decked out in shining armor.

Thanos is huge, and purple, and that gauntlet has got to be the gaudiest piece of jewelry Peter’s ever seen. The combination shouldn’t be as terrifying as it is.

Thanos stops, his head turned away from them. He looks off into the distance and waits.

And waits.

And…

Peter starts to fidget.

“What’s he doing?” he mutters to himself. 

The voice that crackles in his ears catches him by surprise, and Peter only just manages to stop himself from jumping in fright.

_ “He’s reminiscing,” _ what is undeniably Gamora’s voice replies.

“Reminiscing about what?”

The com he was given turns silent for so long that Peter almost starts to believe it broke, even though the Guardians swore it wouldn’t, or that Gamora’s left.

_ “When my sister and I were young, he would take us here to remind us that his crusade was right. That it was just. He’d come to stand in the ruins of his planet and tell us how he offered them a solution to their overpopulation, and they refused.” _

_ “For the record, I don’t think you can call what he offered a “solution”,”  _ comes Starlord’s voice.

Peter swallows, almost afraid to ask. "What did he say?"

Gamora sighs. _ "He proposed a culling. A randomized lottery, where half the population would die so the rest could live." _

"... But that's insane," Peter blurts out.

_ "It is," _ Gamora replies.  _ "But it took my sister and I a long time to realize that." _

"And that's why he wants to get all the infinity stones?" Peter asks. "So he can do that to the whole universe?"

_ "Yes." _

Peter feels sick. But it also makes him mad. "So he gets the power to literally save a whole universe and all he can think to do with it is kill half of everyone? Couldn't he just, double the resources? At least?”

The thought of Thanos meeting with Michelle crosses his mind. He can just picture it, Michelle lecturing that purple giant on ethics and social studies and why his plan is terrible, and it makes him smile.

Of course, Thanos would probably just kill her rather than listen to her, and that has the smile dropping from his face.

_ “Hey, we never said that he was sane,” _ Starlord replies, with that tone adults use when they know something is wrong but are tired from trying to fix it.

_ “Hush.”  _ Mantis’s voice comes suddenly.

_ “What, you can’t seriously disagree with me here, Mantis,” _ Starlord starts to protest, before being silenced — probably by Drax, who’s waiting with him.

_ “No, the lady’s right,” _ says Mr. Stark.  _ “Thanos’s moving. Guess playtime’s over.” _

_ “I don’t see how this qualifies as ‘playtime’,” _ Drax grumbles, almost too low for the coms to pick up.

_ “Everybody focus.” _ Heimdall’s voice is deeper than the other’s, and upon hearing it, everyone goes silent. Peter’s honestly kind of impressed — that takes skill, especially since Heimdall’s not currently  _ on _ Titan, but rather flying the Guardians’ ship, ready to lay down cover-fire if needed.

Peter turns his attention back to Thanos. Mantis and Mr. Stark are right; he is no longer busy reminiscing or whatever that was.

He has turned around, and his shoulders are squared up. When he speaks, Thanos’s voice echoes through the air. "I know you're here, daughter. Come on out now, come with me, and I will let your little friends go." 

Gamora steps into view, her head held high. She aims her blade at Thanos. “I think you already know my answer,  _ father.” _

Thanos sighs and shakes his head. “If I have to be honest… You disappoint me, daughter. You and your sister used to be so promising…”

The fist wearing the gauntlet closes and shines violet. Peter yelps as the rocks they've all been hiding behind turn to dust, and swearing echoes through his com.

_ “You good, kid?” _

“I’m fine, Mister Stark.”

_ “Good. Keep it that way.” _

Peter’s suddenly really glad for the way his mask hides how red his face has become as they spring into motion.

Gamora’s already attacking Thanos, Doctor Strange by her side and reflecting the Reality stone’s power when Thanos tries to use it.

Not paying attention to what the others are doing is difficult, but Peter has his own mission: he needs to listen to Heimdall, who’s set to tell him and Doctor Strange when to use those portals of his.

He doesn’t wait long. Just as they had planned, he jumps through one of Strange’s glowing red portals and shoots webbing at Thanos’s face, blinding him. Drax and Gamora target his legs, but their blades just glance off his armor.

With a blast from the Power stone, Thanos sends them flying. Gamora hits Starlord and they go down but Mr. Stark manages to avoid Drax, pelting Thanos with missiles with the others gather themselves.

It doesn’t work. Between the Power stone and his armor, Thanos just ignores them.

“A valiant effort,” he says, walking steadily toward Gamora. He reaches up to remove the webbing still stuck to his face, and Peter readies another, but Thanos is stopped by Strange’s cape. It wraps itself around the wrist with the gauntlet, keeping it from closing.

_ “Now!”  _ somebody yells, and Heimdall fires from above. Peter dives to the side just in time — he still feels the fire singe his back, even through the suit.

“That won’t stop him!” Gamora yells.

_ Really?! _ Peter wants to yell, but Gamora’s right.

Thanos is already emerging from the smoke. He looks mostly unscathed — but his armor doesn’t. Strange’s cape though somehow does, and Gamora and Starlord take the chance to jump him. She aims for his wrist while Thanos has to duck from Starlord’s energy bolts.

She would have succeeded too, if Thanos hadn’t moved at the last moment. Gamora’s blade slashes through the cape instead, and Thanos wrenches his wrist free with a snarl.

“Enough,” Thanos snarls. “I have —”

They never find out what he was going to say next because the sky opens. It closes almost instantly, but not before letting through a quinjet.

It flies just above their heads, and before anybody can make a move, a blue-skinned figure jumps down from it, aiming for Thanos’s head with a scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing action is such a pain -- whatever even possessed me to add more characters to this mess?


	11. the way the world ends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuri’s finished device is three times smaller than the one Selvig had built Loki, and it’s portative.
> 
> “Well, if I had known there were people on Midgard with this type of skill, maybe I would have come here instead.” 
> 
> “You could have tried.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it is, the last chapter! I honestly can't believe I got there. Thanks to everyone who read/left kudos/reviewed, you guys mean the world to me.  
> Also specials thanks to Lin, who's been listening to me curse about this fic for weeks now :p
> 
> PS: as always, with Marvel, I'd advise to stay until the very end... ;) Cheers :)
> 
> Enjoy!

****Shuri’s finished device is three times smaller than the one Selvig had built Loki, and it’s portative.

“Well, if I had known there were people on Midgard with this type of skill, maybe I would have come here instead,” Loki states idly. At her side, Thor groans and moves to apologize, but Shuri has it handled.

“You could have _tried,”_ she retorts, and behind her, the Dora Milaje shift their grips on their weapon.

Loki’s grin only grows wider at that, and she laughs.

Thor’s face shifts to a hope so naked Steve has to look away, and he approaches Wanda instead, standing half a step behind her as she starts analyzing the Mind stone.

“Do you really think you can destroy it?” he finds himself asking.

Wanda’s eyes remain on the stone. She frowns as wisps of red light wrap around the stone, making it shine brighter. She pulls back. “I think so, yes.”

It’s a weight off his shoulders, and Steve clasps her shoulder proudly. “I’ll ask T’Challa if he knows somewhere you can go.”

Wanda nods gratefully but her focus returns to the stone. It flares once, so brightly Steve has to blink spots from his vision.

When he does, Wanda has the stone encaged in red. “That would be best, yes,” she agrees faintly. “Somewhere far away from other people.”

“I should —” Vision starts, but Wanda shakes her head, her eyes going soft.

“I think I should do this alone,” she says, and whatever passes between them after that has Vision retreating.

Feeling distinctively like an intruder, Steve excuses himself and goes find T’Challa.

Relaying messages isn’t exactly how he’d figured this day would end, but it’s infinitely better than the alternative, and since it needs to be done, Steve will do it gladly.

 

* * *

 

Shuri insists on coming back with them to the US, telling Steve they “will need somebody who knows how to operate this thing on the other side of the portal”.

“Also,” she adds, “it’s not finished yet — but don’t worry, it will be by the time we get there.”

T’Challa looks about as alarmed as Steve feels, but their arguing is pointless, and Shuri gets her way.

Not even half an hour after Wanda returns from victoriously destroying the Mind stone, scattering it into golden dust, they’re all bundled up together in a borrowed Wakandan plane, and flying home.

Steve finds Bucky near the cockpit, overlooking the quickly passing sky as Okoye flies the plane.

“Hey,” Steve says, feeling oddly caught off balance without the earlier urgency of battle.

“Hey,” Bucky returns. He looks and sounds tired, and something inside of Steve’s chest twists.

He licks his lips. “You know,” Steve says even though it wrenches at his heart, “you don’t have to be here if you don’t want to be.”

He had visited Bucky once, after the scientists in Wakanda had woken him up and cleared him of the programming. Just once, because it had been too dangerous to come back more often.

But Bucky had seemed… happy, there. Peaceful and content, in a way Steve didn’t really remember him being, even before the war.

“You didn’t have to come,” he continues, but his mouth goes dry and he falls silent when Bucky just shoots him _the_ look.

It’s the look Bucky gets when he thinks Steve’s being particularly stupid or obtuse, and the familiarity of it is like a punch in the guts.

(It wasn’t that long ago that he’d thought he’d never get to see that look again.)

Steve laughs ruefully.

“You’re here,” Bucky replies, and it sounds like _Where else would I be?_

Steve nods back, his throat suddenly too tight for words, and together they wait for the flight to end.

 

* * *

 

Sam insists on flying the quinjet while Shuri sets up her portal device.

“I could —” Steve tries to interject, but Bucky snorts at him.

“He is _actually_ a pilot, you know. And he’s better at it than you.”

“Not that it’s hard,” Sam adds, and Steve watches in horror as they share a commiserating look.

“I think I liked it better when you two couldn’t stand each other,” Steve mutters.

“We still can’t,” Sam deadpans, but the mirth in his eyes betray him.

“Captain,” Vision interrupts. “The prin— Shuri believes you are ready to leave.”

Steve’s heart rises up in his throat, and he gives Vision a curt nod. He wishes the android would come with them, but with the wounds he’d sustained already, it’s better he stay here — there’s only so much healing they could get done in such a short time. “Gather up everyone.”

“Of course.”

It doesn’t take him long. Nobody had dared to wander too far off from the quinjet they’d decided they’d take — or even _into_ the compound at all, Steve comes to realize.

“Good, you’re all here,” Shuri says, looking up from the device she’s set up on the lawn. It hums and whirs, the Space stone shining blue in the middle. She clasps her hands together, and hands Steve a leather strip.

Befuddled, Steve accepts it and tucks it into his suit. “Thanks?”

Shuri’s lips twitch in amusement — from the corner of his eyes, Steve thinks he can see Loki shake with laughter too, but ignoring her is definitely better for his sanity.

“Just cut it in two when you’re done with Thanos,” she says. “Then I’ll reopen the portal and you can come back.”

Steve nods solemnly, suddenly more worried about keeping that piece of leather secure.

“Well, then,” Shuri says, addressing the group as a whole, “I guess this means you’re all ready to go. I’ll fire up the portal in ten minutes, and keep it open for two.” She sobers up. “Good luck.”

 

* * *

 

The ride through the portal is so smooth it might not even have happened. Except…

“We’re not in Kansas anymore,” Bucky whistles, and despite the severity of the situation, Steve has to bite back a chuckle.

“We’re definitely not,” he agrees, staring into the alien landscape.

 _“There,”_ Steve points, his eyes falling onto small moving figures on the ground. They grow bigger as Sam brings them in closer, and Steve’s lungs constrict as he recognizes the red and gold armor the sunlight catches on.

“Son of a bitch,” he breathes, his lips twitching into a smile.

At the same time, Sam says, “Well, I’ll be damned.”

That’s undeniably Tony down there, fighting Thanos with a team of people Steve doesn’t recognize.

Honestly, he’s not even surprised.

“That’s our team!” Rocket cries out, scuttling up to the cockpit. _“Ah,_ see Groot, I knew they’d be fine!”

“I am Groot,” Groot replies dubiously, causing Rocket to scowl at him.

“Of course I was sure,” Rocket protests, sputtering. Groot returns to his game though — will this ever not be weird? — and Rocket turns to Sam.

“Get us down there.”

“Working on it,” Sam hisses back, the eyeroll audible in his voice as he banks to the left and brings them closer to the ground.

A loud _clang_ echoes from behind, and Steve startles, his heart racing in his chest.

“Oh, nothing!” Rocket shouts back. “Just, you know, Nebula deciding she’d rather take the short way down!”

“The short way d—” Steve’s mouth falls open as the words catch up to him. He strides to the back of the quinjet, which is now hanging open. “You mean she jumped off?”

“And so did Thor,” Loki points out, smirking from where she’s sitting, sharpening her knives.

“Surprised you’re still here then,” Rocket points out meanly.

“Who says I am?” Loki shrugs and stretches, before vanishing with a wink.

Inwardly, Steve curses.

And then, because he can, he does it out loud too.

 

* * *

 

Gamora has long stopped being surprised at the way her sister always seems to manage to find her — be it willful or not — but even so, she has to admit her brain stalls for a good half a second as she watches Nebula drop down from the sky, a war cry on her lips.

Thanos’s fist glows purple, and Gamora’s heart rises in her throat.

 _“NO!”_ she shouts, but she can’t move quickly enough — Thanos bats her sister away like a fly with a flash of the Power stone.

Somebody else does, though, guided by what she recognizes as Heimdall’s steady tones.

The wizard opens one of his glowing portals and Spiderman swings through it, catching Nebula before she even starts to come down.

Above them, storm clouds impossibly start to gather, and Gamora runs to her sister.

Her sister, who is clearly fine, if the way she’s berating the young Spiderman is any way to judge.

Gamora feels a smile tug at her lips as Nebula bites out an “I’m fine.”

But your arm,” Spiderman squeals.

“Is fine,” Nebula finishes, and Gamora rounds up on them to see her sister twist her arm back into its socket, rotating her shoulders with a whir.

The eyes on Spiderman’s mask blink, and Gamora swallows back a flash of mirth.

“Nebula,” she greets, and pretends not to see the way tension unwinds from her sister’s face at the sound of her voice.

“Gamora,” Nebula nods back. She bends down and picks up a long knife from the ground, as well as a crude type of gun. These are not weapons she recognizes, but in her sister’s hands, she trusts that they will be as deadly as they need to be.

Spiderman suddenly clears his throat.

“Huh, guys… Not to be a killjoy or anything, but erm, I think they might need our help back there?”

He points at something behind them, and Gamora turns around to follow it.

Nebula curses loudly, and together, they start running back to the fight.

Spiderman’s calls for a portal go unanswered, but Gamora’s not really surprised. From what she’s seeing, he’s probably a little too busy for that.

 

* * *

 

The one good thing about Thor, Tony thinks as he ruefully blinks back spots from his vision — another update to make to the suit, looks like — is that he can always be counted on to make an entrance.

The quinjet takes the distraction Thor provides to land, and Tony flies over to it.

His hands grow clammy as he sees Steve come out running, but he forces himself to laugh.

“You’re late, Cap’. What did you guys do, stop on the way here again? It’s becoming kind of a problem.”

“Tony.” Steve nods, the muscles in his jaw jumping.

The moment is broken by the _raccoon_ that strides out of the ship, followed by a _walking tree,_ because this is somehow Tony’s life now.

“What the fuck?” Tony breathes as the raccoon takes a run at Thanos, shooting energy bolts from a gun almost as tall as him (it?) in between Thor’s lightning bolts.

Steve chuckles and clasps him on the shoulder. Inside the armor, Tony doesn’t really feel it, but he flinches anyway.

“It’s good to see you, Tony,” he says, and Tony sighs, because what the fuck, they’re fighting for the fate of the universe here, and it _is_ good to see Steve, to have the Avengers here.

“Yeah, well, you too,” he mumbles, before clearing his throat and pointing at Thanos, who somehow seems to be holding his own using the Power stone against whatever Thor’s new weapon is.

“The fight’s that way,” Tony continues.

Steve sobers up. “What do we need to know?”

The other rogue Avengers file in after him slowly, and Tony allows himself one second to feel bitter before he looks away, focusing back on Steve.

“He’s got the Power and Reality stone,” he rattles off. “That’s purple and red — he seems to only be able to use one at a time, and only through the gauntlet, so try not to let him close his fist. The Power stone packs a punch, and the Reality stone affects well, reality — but Strange’s on that.”

Tony points at the wizard who, almost on cue, sends a glowing ring of energy at Thanos that the Titan turns into smoke. Even from all the way over here, Tony can spot Strange’s smirk — and with due reason, as Thanos only manages to duck Thor’s ax by an inch.

“The others are the Guardians,” he continues, pointing at each of them in turn. “The green lady’s Gamora, and she’s mean with a sword, Quill’s got some nifty energy guns, Drax’s like the Hulk, but less, you know, Hulky, and Mantis has freaky mind powers she’s supposed to use on Thanos at the first chance she gets.”

“Oh,” Tony adds after a beat, “and Thor’s buddy Heimdall is somewhere up in the sky in the Guardians’ ship.”

As though summoned, said ship rounds up, flying low and firing at Thanos, who lets out a loud growl. He punches his fist forward, and everyone flies back in a wave of purple.

He grunts, and yanks his fist downward.

A loud _crack_ deafens the world, and when Tony looks up, his HUD blaring with alarms, the moon is aimed straight at them.

Or rather, straight at the Guardians’ ship, which goes down in a trail of fire and smoke. Heimdall's voice crackles in his ears, telling them he's fine but out of the fight.

Thanos has no time to rejoice — Thor sends a stream of lightning that actually blasts Thanos back several feet.

Honestly, Tony’s starting to feel superfluous here.

“What do you say we join the party, Cap?”

“One of these days, we’re going to need to have a discussion about your definition of the word ‘party’,” Steve retorts, but when Tony flies off, he follows.

 

* * *

 

There are too many people fighting, and that is not a complaint Loki’d ever thought she’d have to voice in a fight against Thanos.

But there are, and so she has to.

Being relegated to the sidelines _now_ rankles — it makes her want to stab someone, and with Thanos currently unavailable that leaves her prospect frustratingly barren.

She scowls and shifts her grips on her daggers, ready to send them flying at a moment’s notice.

Which is how she notices Nebula, slaloming between the fallen moon debris and bursting through the smoke, her sister on her heels.

And Nebula probably can’t see it from where she’s running, but Thanos isn’t nearly as stunned as the smoke makes him appear. His armor’s mostly gone now, but whatever remained had protected him from Thor’s blast surprisingly well.

Well, that or he’d used the Power stone somehow again.

Loki sees it happen like in slow motion. She’s too late to shout out a warning, too late to do much of anything, as Thanos swings around and grabs Nebula by the throat, lifting her high in the air.

For an instant, Loki has to close her eyes, the vision before her superposing with another.

When she opens them again, the battlefield has fallen still, and her heart hammers in her chest.

But her hands are steady around her daggers, and her seidr thrums underneath her skin — all she needs is an opening.

 

* * *

 

Sometimes, Nebula lists to herself the parts of her that are still _hers,_ the parts of her Thanos hasn’t traded away for his so-called enhancements.

The list used to shrink as her hatred for her sister grew, as their father took out more and more of her and replaced her with machines.

She had wondered, sometimes, why he hadn’t taken her lungs, if the aim was to make her more efficient.

Now, as she gasps for air in his grip, she knows why.

Her legs kick the air uselessly — she’s too far away to reach him, or even swing herself up to his arm. All she can do is stab her fingers into the flesh of his hand and try fruitlessly to get him to let go.

_“Nebula!”_

Her sister’s voice calling her name brings out a desperate resolve in her, and her eyes snap to Gamora’s face.

She looks… enraged. She would pity Thanos, if she thought that monster could ever deserve pity.

“Let her go,” Gamora hisses.

Thanos smiles. “Certainly,” he says, but he doesn’t make a move to do so. His smile widens. “Just as soon as you tell me where the Soul stone is.”

Nebula shakes her head as much as she could, pleading to her sister with her eyes. _Don’t you dare,_ she seethes wordlessly. _Don’t you dare. I’m not worth the universe — don’t let him_ win.

Her heart threatens to burst with pride and glee as Gamora only squares her shoulders and refuses.

“So be it.” Thanos’s face splits into an ugly scowl, and his twists the gauntlet. It shines purple, again, and suddenly all of the fighters — Avengers and Guardians — crumble to the ground, as though pinned there by an unseen weight.

Nebula remembers that feeling, and she knows they all have only a few moments to live, at most.

She can see the moment her sister capitulates, and it makes her want to rage.

But before Gamora can say anything, the ground flashes red. It pulses against the purple of the Power stone, pushing it back until it breaks.

Wanda, the witch Nebula had met in Wakanda, emerges from it with a wordless scream of rage, and hurls an orb of red magic at Thanos, who almost doesn’t deflect it in time.

“How?” Thanos breathes. For the first time, he looks truly stunned, staring at the heaving witch, who was already preparing for another assault.

He pauses and tilts his head to look at her. “Ah, I see,” he finally says, nodding. “You’ve touched one of the stones too. Fascinating, aren’t they?”

“I _destroyed_ a stone,” Wanda, snarls as she hurls another orb at him — and then, to Thanos’s dismay, yet another.

“Impossible,” her father breathes, and in his surprise, his grip loosens.

Not by much, but just enough.

A knife materializes in her hand with a flare of green, and Nebula stabs it through Thanos’s hand with a snarl.

He lets go of her with a shout, but before he can try to use the gauntlet again, Gamora is on his — and so is Wanda; and so is Nebula. The quinjet they had taken to Titan opens fire as well, and Nebula uses the distraction to spring up and take a stab at Thanos’s throat.

Nebula doesn’t know what kills her father, in the end.

She doesn’t know if it’s her blow, or Wanda’s, or even one of the numerous shots or bolts their other allies send.

But Thor’s ax takes his head, and there is no coming back from that.

It doesn’t feel real, not yet — but Gamora’s arms, as they pull her into a crushing hug, those do feel real.

For now, that’s enough.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Later**

_**A cliff in Norway** _

Thor finds his sister on the edge of the cliff where their father died. If Thor closes his eyes, he thinks he can still see it happening, the golden dust floating away on the breeze.

He doesn’t, though — their father isn’t why he’s here.

“I thought I mind find you here,” he says, coming to a stop next to Loki.

(Thor doesn’t mention how he’d almost panicked, yesterday, when he’d awoken in their makeshift colony, and found Loki gone.

Somehow, he doesn’t think he has to.)

“Did you?” Loki replies. She doesn’t turn to face him, instead keeping her eyes on the ocean.

Thor doesn’t look at the ocean. Instead, he looks at his sister’s hands, which play, for once, not with one of her daggers, but with a sliver of something green.

At first, Thor thinks it’s a strand of grass — there is plenty around them, and Loki had been known to play with them, once, when they were children.

But that doesn’t look with grass — it looks like a stone.

Thor’s heart skips a beat. He feels like he’s falling.

“Is that —?”

Loki’s eyes finally snap to him, and she smirks. With a twist of her fingers, the stone vanishes up her sleeves — Thor doesn’t even think she’s using seidr for it, just sleight of hand.

“Don’t worry,” Loki says, smirking, “I’m only borrowing it. Why, I even got permission too.”

“You did?” Thor asks, incredulous.

Loki shrugs, smirk turning mysterious. “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t.” Another twist of her wrist, and the stone returns.

It glimmers green.

“What do you say, brother,” Loki says. “Shall we get our people back?”

And Thor…

Thor laughs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was fun :p This ended up involving way more characters and plot than I had first planned, but I probably should have expected that given previous experience with literally any of my fics...  
> There were a couple of things I might have wanted to address more, like the Tony&Steve thing, but this honestly didn't feel like the place. Also I love them both and as they say, we don't have time to unpack all that :p
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed this! See you around! :)

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the poem by Mary Frye, which is one of my favorite poems.


End file.
